Project : Architecture
  • PROJECTS
    • SFS Elementary School Library
    • Utopian Palimpsest: Chambord
    • SFS Middle Years Library
    • Tung House
    • Big Dig House
    • Verdant Recording Studio
    • Valentine Houses
  • PROJECTIONS
    • Fragments of a New Housing Language
    • Interdependent Urbanism
    • Spaces of Translation
    • Preservation, Pluralism, and Adaptive Reuse
  • EXHIBITIONS × LECTURES
    • City as Verb
    • Utopian Palimpsest: Chambord
    • Existing City / New Resource
    • Fragments of a New Housing Language
    • Psychedelic Architecture: Form and Allegory
  • ABOUT

awards, library

Dulwich College Seoul ‘Inquiry Hub’ Library Wins 2021 AIA International Award

11 November 2021

On 11 November 2021, The Dulwich College Seoul Inquiry hub was awarded a 2021 Award from the American Institute of Architects International Region. The AIA IR is the broadest geographical region of the AIA and is composed of over 2400 U.S. licensed architects practicing internationally in approximately 110 different countries. The AIA IR has bestowed 5 awards to Korea-based architects, 3 of which have been awarded to John Hong. This year’s award ceremony was held in Dubai on 11 November 2021.

Here is our pre-recorded acceptance speech:

The Dulwich College Seoul Inquiry Hub is a library and interactive learning space for primary school children ages 4 through 7. As a renovation of an outdated children’s library, the new design implements the idea of ‘interior urbanism’ to create immersive spaces that foster creative learning and play. While the existing library placed children and books across a low, horizontal datum, the new design takes advantage of the double-height volume and uses landscape-like stairs, mezzanines, a hammock, and central tower to create a sense of individual agency. Through the nested scales of new elements, children and adults can interact in diverse social ecosystems, from one-on-one to collective engagement.

The Inquiry Hub intersects with the larger academic community through its transparent entry and reading bay window. Interior elements are carefully positioned to draw students into a bookstacks area with an adjacent book mezzanine. This zone creates ‘future memories’ through abstractly referencing an urban arcade and historically significant libraries from around the world. In the double-height multi-purpose area, the afore-mentioned landscape stair with integrated bookshelves allows children to gather in various groups.

The library’s central figure is a 2-story tower supporting a hammock: Together they form a vertical learning and play experience. The added dimension allows access to two levels of front-facing books – a display format that inspires children to interact with learning materials. The top portion of the tower faces a flexible 2nd floor classroom reserved for language learning, technology, crafts, and lectures and workshops.

Dulwich Inquiry Hub_AIA award

PROJECT CREDITS

John Hong AIA + Hoseung Lee (Design Directors)
Yeongshin Sim, Eunseop Suh (Design Team)

related posts

SFS-MYL

SFS Middle Years Library

The design for this international middle school library adaptively transforms a closed-off ground floor of a 35-year-old classroom building into a light, porous, learning space inextricably tied to the larger campus. As the given footprint was fragmented by a server room…

tung house 0473 Custom 1

Tung House Wins SARA | NY Award

The Tung House has won a 2018 Society of American Registered Architects Award from the SARA New York Council. This prestigious award showcases design excellence from American architects not only practicing in the U.S., but also those that are making a positive…

SFS_ES library_3S7A2054 (Custom)

SFS Elementary School Library

SFS Elementary School Library wins a 2019 AIA International Region Award and is featured in SPACE Magazine: The design for this International elementary school library blends flexibility with specificity, addressing the scales of growing children…

Tung House

Tung House

Located on a strictly preserved wooded area, this project converges with the site and environment through a zero-energy strategy. While the massing adheres to tight setback restrictions, the roof breaks free of the house’s orthogonal geometry to…

Seoul Biennale Opening Forum 100 Years of Modern Architecture Exhibit

Project : Architecture is the design and research lab of John Hong AIA, LEED AP

Subscribe to P:A News. Your address is private and will never by distributed.

Tags

academicawardscommercialcomputationdevious topographiesdrawingseventsexhibitionguest-lectureshousinginstitutionalinterior-architecturelectureslibrarymappingnew englandparametricpreservationpublicationsrenovationseoul-biennaleSNUsustainablesymposiumteachingterminologyurban
Back to top
Project : Architecture
© Project : Architecture 2022

INFO

project /n/ a collaborative enterprise:
project /v/ to forecast or extend:
Project : Architecture is the design and research lab of John Hong AIA, LEED AP

Seoul National University
Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering
Building 39-503
1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu
Seoul, Korea 08826

Email: pa [at] projectarchitecture [dot] com
Tel Korea: +82 2 880 1621
Tel USA: +1 617 302 9777

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive the most recent P:A news. Unsubscribe at any time. Your address is private and will never by distributed or sold.

Recent Posts

  • 100 Years of Modern Architecture Exhibit
  • Dulwich College Seoul ‘Inquiry Hub’ Library Wins 2021 AIA International Award
  • Seoul Biennale Opening Forum
  • The Only Question is When: John Hong lecture at Singapore University of Technology and Design | 14 July 2021
  • City as Verb
  • City As Verb Wednesday Seminars
  • SFS Elementary School Library
  • Utopian Palimpsest: Chambord
  • Preservation, Pluralism, and Adaptive Reuse
  • John Hong to Teach Masterclass, ‘Devious Topographies’ at UTS:
  • SFS Middle Years Library
  • Existing City / New Resource

TWITTER

My Tweets