k i ta e k i m
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kitaedesigns.com kitaekim @ umich.edu 617.435.8922
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The multifaceted and varied nature of my work reflects a dogged pursuit of new tools, instruments, schemas, and ways of thinking, not for the effects they produce but for the subsequent questions they elicit. I am curious about reimagining processes, and feel most fulfilled when I create my own. For this reason I reject standard or ‘brand’, aesthetic or ‘look’. Instead, I believe questions of reevaluation and reinterpretation produce their own beauty, which, coupled with an aspiration for a wellness of craft, invariably create unique products of confident and excited quality.
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architecture f u g u e s tat e i n va li d a rch itec tu re v i r t u a l ly h u m a n
gr aphic n a s a v s t h e d.o.d. i c a b os to n
digital d ay d r o b e d i g i ta l to u c h co e v ery w h er e
product serein chair sunshower
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architec ture
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f u g u e s tat e How can architecture make visible a group of people, and their plight, while maintaining their anonymity? Studio Professor: Anca Trandafirescu Jurors: Julian Bonder, Principal, Bonder + Associates Jonathan Solomon, Director, School of the Art Institute Chicago Dr. Katerina Ruedi Ray, Professor, Bowling Green University Awarded Special Commendation (2nd Place) Wallenberg Studio Competition ‘REFUGE’ 2016
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Hikikomori are recluses who seek extreme isolation in reaction to their hostile social environment. They escape the conformist culture of Japan by seeking refuge in their rooms‌ sometimes for years to decades. Can mobility grant agency to a group of people that intentionally isolate themselves? How can this mobility simultaneously enable anonymity while also reflecting back on the society that created its necessity? This project proposes a networked counter-memorial beneath Tokyo that creates trails of fog throughout the city streets in order to bring access to and for the Hikikomori. The counter-memorial uses constructed vapor to hide and unify inhabitants, disrupting everyday life for all. It refuses to be a permanent monument rooted in a locale where it can be neglected. It invades the everyday spaces, co-opts the banal, erases the existing and disrupts the familiar. At the same time the counter-memorial’s fog is unstable, its material can be shaped but not controlled, reflecting on the nature and role of an invisible and almost forgotten people.
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HIKIKOMORI , SHAMED BY SOCIETY
+ PARENTS
80% MALE SOCIETY SHAMES THOSE UNABLE TO CONFORM
1 MILLION HIKIKOMORI
AVERAGE AGE 16-30 YRS OLD
OUTCAST
HIKIKOMORI OCCUPIED SPACES AVERAGE TIME IN WITHDRAWAL BEFORE PARENTS SEEK HELP, 4 YEARS
HIKIKOMORI OCCUPIED SPACES MOTHER
FATHER
AVERAGE TIME IN WITHDRAWAL BEFORE PARENTS SEEK HELP, 4 YEARS
HIKIKOMORI OCCUPIED SPACES
4 YEARS OF GARBAGE
AVERAGE TIME IN WITHDRAWAL BEFORE PARENTS SEEK HELP, 4 YEARS
4 YEARS OF GARBAGE
4 YEARS OF GARBAGE
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HOURS OF DAY HIDDEN IN ROOM
Contextual hermits 18 19 in20Japan) 21 22 demographics, 23 24 1 research 2 3 4 for 5 Hikikomori 6 7 8 9 (modern-day 10 11 12 13 adolescent 14 15 16 17 strained relationships with family members/society, as well as their reclusive hoarding condition. HOURS OF DAY HIDDEN IN ROOM Hikikomori go into hiding as a reaction to the intensely conformist education/professional culture of Japan where those who do not fit in are bullied and shunned. 11 1
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HOURS OF DAY HIDDEN IN ROOM
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Panorama of fog pathways created by the architecture for Hikikomori to be camouflaged in. View from a skyscraper in Shinjuku, Tokyo, the main government/business district. The business culture proliferates conformism as well as socially Darwin-istic competition while the government continues to deny the Hikikomori condition as a government issue but rather a family matter.
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Fog network maps showing design of environmental camouflage infrastructure that allows Hikikomori to move around the city disguised as a just another silhouette in the fog. An architecture that frees and scrambles rather than confines or sequesters.
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Fog network maps showing inherent instability of material and the opportunity it affords for both symbolic implication of society through the invasion of public space and for Hikikomori rehabilitation by the gradient nature of the camouflage. Hikikomori can choose to reintegrate themselves into society by either totally hiding themselves in the fog or revealing themselves to society.
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Fog network sections through various areas/scales/verticalities of Shinjuku showing camouflage, disruption, and recognition of the Hikikomori through the co-opted symbolism of the fog. Left: Section through Fog network infrastructure showing the underground waterlines and ballast tanks that support a modular system of fog nozzles attached to buildings. The fog is partially trapped by condensation nets between buildings to loosely shape pathways for Hikikomori.
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Vignettes of the fog network affecting different parts of Shinjuku. The fog renders people as silhouettes to each other, sometimes dividing them yet sometimes forcing them together. Streets become empty wastelands, enabling the Hikikomori to walk freely. Perceptually it transforms the city creating new perspectives in a place people used to think familiar. This change in visual perception prompts reflection for both individuals and the greater society, challenging the blind conformist culture.
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Untitled, Giorgio Morandi, 1956
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i n va l i d a r c h i t e c t u r e How can an architecture deceptively fulfill the needs of its client while also covertly making a commentary about them? Studio Professor: Melissa Harris Critics: Christian Unverzagt, Britt Eversole, Craig Borum, Neal Robinsom, Rosaylne Shieh
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How does one create an architecture that can detach and coalesce simultaneously, act as two things at once, manifest a paradox? The illusions of Morandi, with confusions between edges and planes, image and reality, placing one view against another. Continuity interrupted by moments of pause through mass/volume, blurred edges, and illusions of flatness or depth, ultimately asking how can an architecture hover between states? This deception is taken through multiple levels from artifact to gallery to athletic center, each time manifesting itself differently whether that be through architecture, program or promenade. Each stage of the project aims to emulate the subversion of perception that Morandi’s work effortlessly executes. The final architecture acts as both iconic athletic center, ideal for the university’s sports department, and simultaneously a rigorous critique of its use of student-athletes as nighdispensable spectacle and propaganda. It both showcases the prowess of the student-athlete on its facade while also questioning the typical hierarchy of power through the investigation of the power of ‘gaze’. Who can see who, from what vantage points, and ultimately who has the authority, the student-athletes, the coaches, the public?
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Final model of introductory artifact.
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Process sketches exploring daylighting guiding circulation and reveal of artwork to user.
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Final gallery model imagining the building made of valsar quartzite.
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Circulation diagram examining how users move throughout the space led by daylighting then being led by the reveal of paintings inset in walls.
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Circulation montage showing how the architecture uses its edges to slowly reveal elements to users as they progress through the space. This idea would be continued in the next phase of the project.
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Front elevation, South University Ave. showcasing the student athletes on the facade. 32
JOIN
THE
BROKEN
ELITE
STEPPING UP MICHIGAN SWIMMING AND DIVING GO FOR GOLD
DREAMS THE
OVERWHELMING EXPECTATIONS OF MICHIGAN ATHLETES
Opposite: Front elevation. Above: Posters illustrating the duality of the architecture’s agenda, trying to fulfill the architecture’s function as a swimming and diving center but also provide commentary on the current condition of college athletes as manipulated agents of spectacle. The idea of the power of gaze became increasingly important as the architecture exhibits the activity of the athletes to both the public and athletic administration as those parties are also subject to view by the students of the university from the glass study room in the center of the building.
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Section of building transverse section exploring the power of sightlines through its circulation and promenade.
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plans 1-5 36
Above: Swimming pool/locker room cantilever detail shots. Left: Plans of the swimming and diving center designed with the idea of the power of gaze in mind. Who is watching whom in this architecture? How can the idea of gaze and authority be both seemingly manifested yet subverted to create new power dynamics of spectacle, vision and access? 37
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v i r t u a l ly h u m a n Studio Like Literally. An iterative, experimental exploration of scale, translation and resolution, asking how can architecture define program? Studio Professor: Meredith Miller Critics: Ana Morcillo Parilles, John McMurrough, Cyrus Pennaroyo, Thomas Kelly
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Hands are interesting objects because of their uniqueness in outline, anything with five digits can be interpreted by the human mind as hand. It is instantly recognizable despite changes in resolution, and this recognition was something that became interesting at scale. How does one create an object that sits between levels of recognition? Recognizing that things/objects, elicit reactions and projections exclusive to each viewer no matter the designer’s intentions, the project aims to free itself from the symbolic nature of architecture, in terms of carrying meaning, and instead opts to focus on what these objects can spatially provide as well as emotionally elicit through materiality, orientation, light, shadow, scale, image or texture, thus maintaining a responsibility in design for only the limits of architecture, for if any building can convert to fit a program, like a church becoming a bank, then why does form follow program? Why cannot program be derived from architecture?
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Reaching
Standing
Walking
Study model series analyzing iterative abstraction of form in relationship to levels of recognition of the human form. These studies would ultimately inform the final aesthetic of the urban sculpture park and thus the program as well. All artworks/artists chosen for the park deal with the abstraction of the human form in their sculptural works.
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Urban sculpture park of abstracted hands rendered in gilded steel alloy, perforated and adorned with LEDs that glow in response to the passing of the ‘L’ train adjacent to the site.
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Left Top: Night time, embedded LEDs in hands glow and pulse through perforations in response to ‘L’ train activity adjacent to site. Left Bottom: ‘The Crossroads’ night time detail shot where the architecture pushes people together. Above: Plan of sculpture park.
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Above: Section through site showing interaction between people, art and architecture exploring the various scales of the ‘body’. Terrain was used to help create the Zones that each afford a different a different effect by nature of their spatial conditions
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zoning
program
circulation
Zoning: Loosely defined areas of specific interaction afforded by the designed terrain + architecture. Program: Arrangement of works by Antony Gormley and Tony Cragg, two artists that explore corporeal resolutions. Circulation: Pulling people in from sidewalks and allowing for many paths of movement at different velocities throughout the sculpture park. 49
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graphic
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n a s a v s t h e d.o. d. An infographic comparing the budgets and achievements of NASA and the department of defense from 1956-2013. Based on relative budget size, who has accomplished more?
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i c a b o s to n A comic exploring the architectural dematerialization of the ICA Boston by DS+R. How can an architectural lesson be democratized through a comic?
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d i g i ta l
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d i g i ta l to u c h How can we ‘feel’ the untangible? Can a wearable physicalize the sensation of video/music?
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Arduino digital + physical controller glove. A wearable that can control video play speed, composition, orientation, and scrubbing using programmed hand motions facilitated by flex sensors in the fingers and a accelerometer on the back of the hand. Also connected to a relay with lighting to control physical lights as well. Interested in the use of the body to control something digital I am exploring an augmented physical interaction with products and systems we only consider through the use of an inorganic, proxy remote control. What other ways can we think about ergonomics and interface? How do we augment the human body to perform beyond its means, to manipulate other inhuman systems more biophysically?
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Kinetic-visual controller glove with programmed hand motions to control different effects of video + audio.
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d ay d r o b e How can an app reconnect people to the everyday landscape outside their window? Take a picture of your outside space and it creates a weather relevant outfit for you.
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co e v e r y w h e r e UX/UI work for CO Everywhere/Groundsignal, a geo-social data aggregator. What can be learned from social media in a specified time/area in a hyper-local context? Can condensed social media be used as a sort of swarm intelligence?
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product
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serein chair “The fine, light rain that falls from a clear sky at sunset; evening serenity.�
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Concept chair exploring digital fabrication to create a piece of furniture of a simple, balanced and harmonious design.
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The stack design allows all pieces to be flat-packed and assembled on site, saving space and shipping costs.
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sunshower How does light affect the body and the mind? SunShower Light Therapy lamp uses UV LEDs to combat depression and boost happiness without the side effects of antidepressants. Jurors:
Paola Antonelli, Principal Design Curator at the MoMA, New York Stefano Giovannoni, Architect / Designer, Principal Giovannoni Design Studio, Milan Birgit Lohmann, Editor-In-Chief of Designboom, Milan Alberto Meda, Designer, Principal of Alberto Meda Industrial Design, Milan Alessandro Mendini, Architect / Designer, Principal of Atelier Mendini, Milan Denis Santachiara, Designer, Principal of Santachiara Studio, Milan Lu Xiaobo, Dean, Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing Nagasawa Tadanori, President, Musashino Arts University, Tokyo Shortlisted Entry Gwangju Design Biennale x Designboom
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Process sketches: pod turning makes the usage of the light/therapy a time-based ritual to help build the daily habit of using the device in place of antidepressants.
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Concrete shell Arduino Pro Mini Accelerometer Lithium Battery Perfboard Resistors Transistors UV LEDs Magnets Charging Port Frosted Vinyl Shell
Exploded axonometric construction diagram of SunShower pod above acrylic stand.
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Perfboard circuitry designs.
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Daylight mode: White light to boost happiness and focus by simulating daylight and boosting natural vitamin D production.
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Night mode: Red light to boost natural melatonin production to prompt sleep and fight insomnia.
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Detail of SunShower in night mode. How else can we interact with our lighting besides just flicking a switch? Can they help us form good habits? Make us healthier and happier? 81
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