Space – September 2026

Summary

Space's September 2026 issue (Vol. 61 No. 9, Issue 706) profiles Choi Moongyu and Ga.A Architects under the rubric "Modernist Discipline," placing the Kansong Art Museum Daegu, Seoul National University Medical Library, and PARKSEOBO MUSEUM at the centre of a 48-page Frame section. Cover photographer Namgoong Sun captures the clean geometries that define Choi's practice.

Choi Moongyu's essay on page 26 — "Here and Now: Questioning Through Architecture" — sets the theoretical foundation. Three projects follow: Kansong Art Museum Daegu on page 32 with its travertine-clad galleries, Seoul National University Medical Library on page 42 with a glazed reading hall suspended above the campus slope, and PARKSEOBO MUSEUM on page 50 housing the late artist's ongoing Dansaekhwa meditation. Pai Hyungmin joins Choi for a dialogue on simplicity on page 62.

FORET 149 by demo+architects on page 72 is a mixed-use block in Seoul with staggered terraces. Canopy on page 82 by moc architects transforms a Yeongdo industrial site into a cultural complex. Sungui Church Cultural Space on page 92 adapts a 1970s church. The Focus section covers Yongeun Paper Chungmuro HQ by Narrative Architects. The Relay Interview features Jung Jiyoung.

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Content Guide

▸ Frame Feature / Projects / Focus / Exhibition / Interviews

p.26 · Here and Now: Questioning Through Architecture
Choi Moongyu writes that architecture must question its own necessity before answering programmatic briefs. He argues that the "discipline of simplicity" is not minimalism but a refusal to add form without reason.

p.32 · Kansong Art Museum Daegu
A travertine-clad museum on a sloping Daegu site, with galleries arranged around a top-lit central atrium. Choi used a 4-metre module throughout, making the entire floor plan divisible into exhibition halls of 8 by 12 metres.

p.42 · Seoul National University Medical Library
A glass-walled reading hall cantilevers over the campus hillside, suspended by steel tension rods from the concrete core above. The glazing uses a ceramic frit pattern that cuts solar gain by 40 percent while preserving the mountain view.

p.50 · PARKSEOBO MUSEUM
A museum dedicated to the Dansaekhwa pioneer Park Seo-bo, built from rough concrete with floor-to-ceiling openings that frame the surrounding forest. The main gallery's north-facing clerestory delivers consistent indirect light for painting conservation.

p.62 · The Discipline of Simplicity
Choi Moongyu and Pai Hyungmin debate whether simplicity is a formal language or an ethical position. Pai presses Choi on whether his grids suppress programmatic complexity — Choi replies that constraint is the precondition for invention.

p.72 · FORET 149
demo+architects build a residential-commercial block with staggered terraces planted with native Korean species. Each terrace drains into a rainwater collection tank that supplies the building's irrigation system.

p.82 · Canopy — Yeongdo Cultural Complex
moc architects convert an industrial warehouse on Yeongdo Island into a performance and exhibition space, inserting a folded steel canopy that doubles as acoustic reflector and circulation bridge.

p.126 · Relay Interview: Jung Jiyoung
Jung Jiyoung of JYA-RU Architects discusses "reading order and making change" — her practice of documenting existing urban conditions for a full year before designing any intervention.

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Editor's Take

Choi Moongyu is not a household name outside Korea, and Space's decision to give him 48 pages of coverage is a confident editorial bet that pays off. The PARKSEOBO MUSEUM essay alone — concrete, light, and the framing of nature — is worth the cover price for architecture students. The dialogue between Choi and Pai Hyungmin is the issue's intellectual peak: two practitioners who disagree without theatrics. Weakness: the three non-Frame projects (FORET 149, Canopy, Sungui Church) feel compressed compared to the lead feature, and the News section is again only two pages. Best suited for architects interested in Korean modernism and tectonics.

Strengths
• Choi Moongyu monograph-length treatment with full working drawings
• Choi-Pai dialogue is genuine intellectual exchange, not promotional
• PARKSEOBO MUSEUM section has conservation-grade photography

Weaknesses
• Non-Frame projects get less than half the space they need
• News section remains thin for a second consecutive month

Verdict: Essential — Best single-issue architect study this year; the Choi-Pai debate alone merits purchase.