HIKE-ABILITY, COLLECTIVE INTIMACY, ETC: Minsuk Cho / Mass Studies

Friday, November 12, 2010, 7 - 9pm

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Ann Demeulemeester Shop; courtesy Mass Studies

Ann Demeulemeester Shop; courtesy Mass Studies

CURRENT WORK: MINSUK CHO / MASS STUDIES
“Hike-ability, Collective Intimacy, etc.”
Moderated by James Slade


Mass Studies was founded in 2003 by Minsuk Cho in Seoul, Korea. The firm describes its practice as: “a critical investigation of architecture in the context of mass production, intensely overpopulated urban conditions, and other emergent cultural niches that define contemporary society. Amid the many frictions defining spatial conditions in the twenty-first century, namely past vs. future, local vs. global, utopia vs. reality, and individual vs. collective, Mass Studies focuses on the operative complexity of these multiple conditions instead of striving for a singular, unified perspective. For each architectural project…Mass Studies explores issues such as spatial systems/matrices, building materials/techniques, and typological divergences to foster a vision that allows the discovery of new socio/cultural potential.”

Minsuk Cho was born in Seoul and graduated from the Architectural Engineering Department of Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) and the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University. With partner James Slade, he established Cho Slade Architecture in 1998 in New York City to be engaged in various projects both in the U.S. and Korea. In 2003, he returned to Korea to open his own firm, Mass Studies.

Cho’s awards include the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers in 2000 for his work at Cho Slade Architecture and two U.S. Progressive Architecture Awards (Citations) for “Von Erlach House” in 1999 and “Dalki Theme Park” in 2003. The Dalki Theme Park was exhibited at the theme exhibition of the 2004 La Biennale di Venezia.

His work includes Pixel House, Dalki Theme Park, Nature Poem, Boutique Monaco, Seoul Commune 2026, S-Trenue, Ann Demeulemeester Shop, Xi Gallery, and the Korea Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010.

Co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, the Architectural League of New York and The Korea Society

Admission is free for League members, Korea Society members, and The Cooper Union students/faculty/staff, and $15 for non-members.

Located in The Great Hall, in the Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues

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