“Zoo Zoo” is filled with too much content of reptiles’ exhibition hall, Crocodile Theater, Lion Theater, Sea Lion Theater, etc within a relatively small size site. It might be required four times of current size to accommodate all kinds of programs on the zoo.



In spite of this limited condition, this zoo is always crowded with elementary students in Seoul and Geonggi-do area visit this zoo to have an experience of touching animals. The site is located near by the river and the site have a very high chance of flood during the raining season due to the low site level.

There are two buildings. One is a “lion theater” and the other is a “crocodile theater.” While keeping the design concept of utilizing underneath of the seats, the building shape is defined by the shape of the site. The lion theater mass is molded by the parallelogram shape site and 20 degree seats slope of the client’s requestion.



Crocodile theater mass is molded by the distorted round shape island site and 37 degree slope seats. This condition produced three dimensional curve line edge at the elevation. This arbitrary lookalike masses are actually casted logically by the requested seat slope and site shape.

Architects: Hyunjoon Yoo Architects
Location: 290 Gwansang-dong, Dukyang-gu, Goyang-si, Geonggi-do, Korea
Client: Zoo Zoo
Collaborators: Eo Architectural Office, Daikyung Construction Co.
Project Area: Lion Theater / 379.78 sqm, Crocodile Theater / 417.17 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2010
Photographs: Seunghoon Yum

Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

A cat has become a museum.

There once was a chinese emperor who liked cats a lot, and one day he called upon the most famous painter in the Empire and asked him to paint him a cat. The artist liked the idea and promised that he would work on it. A year passed and the Emperor remembered that the painter still had not given him the painting of the cat. He called him: What of the cat?



It is nearly ready, answered the artist. Another year went by, and another and another. The scene kept repeating itself. After seven years, the Emperor’s patience came to an end and he sent for the painter. What of the cat? Seven years have gone by. You have promised and promised but I still haven’t seen one!



The painter grabs a sheet of rice paper, an ink well, one of those brushes like you can only get in the East and… in an elegant and sublime gesture he draws a cat, which was not just a cat but only the most beautiful cat ever seen.



The Emperor was ecstatic, overwhelmed with such beauty. He did not neglect (which is no longer the case nowadays) to ask the artist how much he would charge for such beautiful drawing. The painter asked for a sum which surprised the Emperor. So much money for a drawing that you did in two seconds, in front of me? said the Emperor. Yes Excellency, that is true, but I have been drawing cats for seven years now, replied the poor painter.

The project for the Museum Mimesis, in the new town of Paju Book City in South Korea, is a cat. The client didn’t have to wait for seven years for his drawing of a cat, but Álvaro Siza has been drawing cats for over seven years now. He has never seen a Korean cat, because he has never been there.

In architecture, after an initial sketch comes the torment. The initial design, models, drawings, corrections to these, doubts, new drawings, new models, a presentation to the client, who had already seen other projects but could not conceal his surprise at this one. Once approved, we progressed the project on through the usual steps, which in Korea are shorter and less bureaucratic.



© FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra
Architects: Alvaro Siza + Castanheira & Bastai Arquitectos Associados + Jun Sung Kim
Location: Paju Book City, Republic of Korea
Project Coordinator: Dalila Gomes
Construction Coordinator: Young-il Park
Collaborators: Chungheon Han, João Figueiredo
Client: Open Books Publishing Co.
Structure: Gayoon ENC
Mechanical Installations: Hansan Engineering Co.
Electricity: Jung-Myoung Engeneering Group Co.
Construction Company: Hanool Construction Co.
Project Year: 2007-2009
Photographs: FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

The Ritz Carlton Country Club, which use to boast a classical European style clubhouse, decided to change its name to the Ananti Club Seoul, taking up the challenge of completely rebuilding and redeveloping its courses and clubhouse in order to reflect the city’s latest lifestyles. This effort has created a place of leisure worth exploring.

Located in the folds of Mt. Yumyeong, just a 30-minute drive away from Seoul using the Seoul Chuncheon Highway that was built last year, the Ananti Club Seoul is surrounded by a thick pine forest, not a typical landscape with such proximity to the city.



The club offers an views of a hundred-year old virgin forest and the mesmerizing tranquility of mountain ridges beyond. The redesign focused its efforts on connecting the natural elements of various geographic forms and levels (ponds, valleys, flat areas, steep slopes) and the various levels of programs for the users, with the least disruption to the surrounding ecology.

In order to minimize the presence of an imposing 8,200 sqm architectural site, about 92% of the building was inserted into the earth, without overshadowing the thick forest and the beautiful ecology of the surrounding area.



The architectural objects, with different functions and identities, blend into nature. In the process of reinterpreting and rearranging the functions, the height difference of 28.8 sqm was split into five levels that link one ground level to another, with the path of movement following suit.



The putting greens and tee boxes are located at GL 355; the swimming pool and pool side terrace restaurant at GL 358; the main entrance and the parking area at GL 366; a pond and a multi-purpose banquet room at GL 373; and finally, a viewpoint deck at GL 378 was inserted into a steep slope, connecting the site in an organic fashion.



The clubhouse was focused on providing views to the landscape, rather than of the golf course, emphasizing its identity as a place of relaxation. This is in correspondence with the fact that the Ananti Club Seoul provides more than a golf course and a clubhouse; it also provides all kinds of sports and leisure programs for the family.




It offers the guest the chance to partake in such activities as swimming, tennis, trekking, ice skating or cross country skiing, and then top it all off with a nice, relaxing sauna session. The plan for the clubhouse went beyond a mere methodological approach to the design of the exterior or the interior. With the full comprehension and reinterpretation of the complex programs of the space where various leisure activities take place and where more than 200 employees conduct their work, new applications and possibilities were attempted and meaningful spaces were created to accommodate the programs.

Architects: Ken Sungjin Min, AIA / Ken Min Architects
Location: Ga Pyeong, Gyeonggi Do, Republic of Korea
Project Design Team: Lee Seung-june, James Shin, Ryu jae-gun, Kang Tae-woo, Son Yun-mi, Lee Hee-geun (CG)
Client: Emerson pacific Group
Project area: 4,933 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Song Jae-Young, Kim Jae-Yun

Ken Min Architects