Junho Kang_Portfolio

Becoming a Haenyeo-Architect, Making a Commons

GSD Graduate Thesis | Fall 2020, Spring 2021

Advisors | Alfredo Thiermann, Gareth Doherty

Project Recognition | High Pass

What can an architect do to an imminent extinction of a culture? Through fieldwork, I documented traditional tools, architecture, land-seascapes, and rituals of Haenyeo in Jeju Island, South Korea, engaged with the community, and built a new commons on site.

As early as 1105, Hae-nyeo (‘sea-woman’) or Jam-nyeo (‘divingwoman’) have subsisted by diving into the sea without breathing apparatus to catch animals and plants, in addition to farming their land and livestock.1 Across land and sea, they designed, built, and expanded these commons with scarce resources.

Badang-bat, or ‘ocean-farmland’, refers to Haenyeo fishery where resources and productions are regulated and shared among them. Bul-teok is an outdoor ‘fire-place’ near a diving point, where Haenyeo changed clothes, rested babies, discussed issues, and prayed for safety. Haenyeo-ui-jip or ‘House(s) of Haenyeo’ were built in the late 1980s by the local government as a modern translation of Bulteok; these single-story bathhouses, cladded with local basalt stones, included a communal bathroom, living room, and kitchenette.

More of these commons are being abandoned as the Haenyeo population ages and shrinks - as of 2021, the number of Jeju Haenyeo has decreased by ~83% since 1965. Using an abandoned Bulteok, I built a new commons within the Samyang Haenyeo community where I could stay and participate in their daily practices. The rebuilt fireplace and added roof open new conversations between the closed & closing world of Haenyeo, and the younger generations.

Opposite: Photograph of Halmang Bulteok & Bonjogaengi Roof by author

1. Hwang, Eun-ju, “Jeju Haenyeo” National Archives of Korea. https://theme.archives.go.kr//next/ koreaOfRecord/SeaLady.do. Accessed 11 September 2021.

Becoming a Haenyeo-Architect, Making a Commons

During the late 17th century in the Joseon Dynasty, Haenyeo became a key regional taxpayer. Jeju island, or Tamra, was assigned to send dried abalones for the king in Seoul. Originally the task was assigned to male divers called Pojakin. Because many pojakin lost their lives or was seriously injured catching abalones, they began to fled the island to avoid this duty. When there were too few pojakin left in the island to fill in the quota, female divers were assigned for the task.

Their method of diving remained the same through modernization: Hold breath. Flip, and dive in. Gravity pulls. Seek, catch, and rise. Exhale, and repeat. Yet, the material of their tools changed from organic to petrochemicals. Goggles, wetsuits, and fins were introduced from Japan. Haenyeo fierecely discussed if the increased productivity could exhaust the fishery at the time of introducing these tools. Despite the oppositions, eventually all the Haenyeo community favored the introduction of the new technologies.

The rise of tourism, and espcially sex tourism in Jeju island during the Japanese occupation in the early 20th century made Haenyeo a sex symbol. Succeeding military regimes of south korea fostered this image by promoting 3S policy or Sex, sports, Screen policy.2

Even nowadays, the dominant narratives of Haeneyo are polarized between the sex symbol and the image of old but strong mother. But is this true description of Haenyeo? I wanted to look at them as a designer and architect.

Becoming a Haenyeo-Architect, Making a Commons

Photograph of Haenyeos on boat, diving and rowing. Source: Yeonhap News

Photograph of Haenyeo Kang, Won-hee

The gender history of Haenyeo I quote here is based on the research by James Edward, “Busting the Myth of Jeju Island’s Topless Divers.”

Fieldwork

Because there was barely any architectural literature on Haenyeo architecture or landscape, I chose to ride a bike along the coast line to find and document Haenyeo architecture. There were 17 field trips. The total distance ridden was 130 miles. On field, I measured and sketched Haenyeo architecture, conducted interviews with Haenyeo and local residents, and recorded soundscapes.

Fieldnote excerpt:

“Haenyeo Jo, Ok-sun started freediving for living since the age of 17. She has seven daughters and one son. Since her retirement at 82, she began teaching at Haenyeo school. After retirement, she said “she feels like a President.”

She told how bulteoks were made by Haenyeo from scratch. Haenyeo knew where the prevailing wind came from. Bulteok entrance was located at the opposite of the prevailing wind. Because Haenyeo changed their clothing in Bulteok, men were not allowed to enter the space.

Ha-gun Haenyeo would bring woods and made fire before Sang-gun Haenyeo finish the diving in the deep water. Ha-gun would sit facing the wind, whereas sang-gun would sit on the opposite side so that she can avoid the smoke.

Haenyeo Ok-Sun’s house was one of the common Jeju houses with a small central yard with multiple small structures: living quarter, bathroom, storage/ hut, and diving storage. The living quarter had living room or Sang-bang at the center, with two rooms on the side and a kitchen.”

Map of fieldwork routes and ecological conditions

Photograph of Jo, Ok-sun

Fieldnote, Interview with Haenyeo Jo, Ok-Sun

Daepyeong House of Haenyeo and interview with the Haenyeo president of Daepyeong-ri, Oh, Yeon-su.

She described how their fishery became barren since the operation of a power plant has started. The change in water temperature caused a change in tidal flow. She was very upset about how other divers catch everything in the fishery without any care for the future. I could see the banner in front of the house, criticizing their over-harvesting. The house was built new a couple years ago, yet many Haenyeo complained with the design. It’s important for them to have a direct view of the ocean to decide if they can dive or not, yet the new building does not provide any view.

Since the construction of a power plant and Jeju harbor, the ocean flow changed from dynamic mixing to one-way from East to West. They described it as “river-ocean” that it is only one-way flow.

Becoming a Haenyeo-Architect, Making a Commons

Gonare-ri Bulteok plan

Gonare-ri Bulteok section

Gonare-ri Bulteok photograph

Samyang Seascape and flow change over time

Bosikozi Bulteok, an outdoor changing ‘room’ is where Haenyeo discussed their diving schedules, exchange information, and took rest. According to the prevailing wind direction, this Bulteok has curved wall to gently block the wind. Since the higher ground is colder, younger Haenyeo sat higher while the older and experienced Haenyeo sat at lower. This Bulteok is currently abandoned, as modern changing rooms with bathtubs, or House of Haenyeo, were built in the 1980s.

Ocean Side

Bosikozi Bulteok Plan Bosikozi Bulteok Section

Sinchon House of Haenyeo, located in Sinchon-ri. The plan reflects the circulation of Haenyeo. They would enter from the wet entrance, leave some of their harvested horned turbans to be cooked immediately, store their tools in the workshop, enter the bath, and rest in the living room.

These houses were designed for Haenyeo according to their circulation and activities. The construction changed over time, from stereotomic wall to modern concrete wall. Haenyeo communities constructed and modified these houses according to their needs. Most often, they added kitchen and wet working space.

Earlier form of House of Haenyeo, located in Hado-ri. It is currently used as storage, but has heating stove and water faucets. Its stereotomic wall section shows the construction method before the introduction of concrete.

Hado-ri Haenyeo

There was an abandoned bulteok in Samyang. They called it Halmang bulteok, meaning grandmothers’ fireplace. I proposed them two things: to rebuild the wall of bulteok, which was destroyed by typhoon years ago, and two: I want to build a small set like a movie set where I will stay temporarily. After thesis is over, I promised to deconstruct it and put it back to the original. Plan shows how the bulteok was cut off by the storage on the south, owned by the shipyard owner.

Halmang Bulteok Shipyard Owner’s Storage Shipyard Shipyard Owner’s House Samyang House of Haenyeo

Storages

Becoming a Haenyeo-Architect, Making a Commons

Even in section, the storage sat on a Bulteok wall as a foundation. The top soil at the bulteok were trash, including broken glass shards, burnt plastics, ropes, abandoned nets.

The concept of the roof is Bonjogangi, an abalone shell that haenyeo used to place underwater when they found something to catch, but out of breath. The new roof would mark the fireplace in the landscape and provide shelter from sunlight and rain.

La Placita

Design Consultant |

December 2021 ~ June 2022

Status | Built

To practice architecture is a process of collecting virtue from everyone and building a place. In the Spring of 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services opened an Emergency Intake Site (EIS) for unaccompanied migrant children in Pecos, Texas. The Pecos EIS or Pecos Children’s Center (PCC) provides shelter for boys and girls, 13 to 17 years old who crossed the U.S. border without documents and guardians for reasons of political, economic, and social strife. The campus provides the needed capacity to accept children referred by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) into Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) care where they can be safely processed, cared for, and either unified with a sponsor or transferred to an appropriate ORR shelter for longer-term care. The Pecos EIS was intended for use as a temporary measure during one of the largest surges in migration from Central America to the US.

The previous oil man-camp, owned by Target Hospitality, housed a maximum of 1400 migrant children between the ages of 13 and 17, from various parts of Central America. In December 2021, I conducted fieldwork on site, writing fieldnotes of my observations of overall spatial experiences, encounters with children and staff. The design team concluded that the shelter needs spaces for gathering, solitude, and play. In January 2022, the team built a mock-up for the outdoor gathering space.

At the end of one of our workshops, a boy said he was glad to imagine such changes in the shelter even if he couldn’t see it himself. Other kids will live in a better place because of him.

Team | Veronica Boix Mansilla (director) , Junho Kang (architect), Paula Garza Gonzalez (learning space specialist), Katie Ryzhikov (horitcultural therapist), Ella Hayslett (horticultural therapist), Ezequiel Bautista (music therapist)

https://www.elpasotimes.com/in-depth/ news/2021/04/23/unaccompanied-migrantchildren-shelter-pecos-texas-oil-camp-bidenadministration/4810041001/

Mock-up sketch for outdoor educational space

Photograph of kids and staff playing soccer behind the fence.

The design team has learned the existing conditions of the PCC and the spatial uses, needs, and desires of children and staff in PCC. From several design workshops between December 1st and December 3rd, many children expressed that they needed spaces of green, gathering, solitude, and play. Those needs largely coincided with those of staff. My own experience on site resonated with them. The team moved away from building a greenhouse and decided to approach the campus holistically. Based on the site analysis and design workshops, the team focused on creating flexible green spaces and improving the accessibility and comfort in the campus.

The team made a site model for children to share their daily paths through the camp using yarn. Through this exercise we were able to see the main pathways the children took. Then, they used water colors to express their emotions at different places in the site model. children expressed very positive emotions in the soccer field and the exit; not as positive in the triage tent, cafeteria, and some dorms.

Mock-up on site, installed between January 21st until 25th, provided space for kids and staff, who needed outdoor spaces to sit, hold class, rest, and talk. The cost for the shade sail installation was approximately $350, excluding furniture and plants. The team proposes to expand the existing mock-up through installing more shades, planting flowers and trees, and providing furniture, speaker, projector. The team came up with three more sites to install shades: 8 wooden decks, southeast corner of the campus, and backyard on the northern edge.

extension 1: 8 decks

extension 2: corner space

extension 3: backyard classroom

pilot site for mock-up

Quarantine With Green

Instructor | Rok Oman, Špela Videčnik

Pandemic is not an equalizer. It rather exploits vulnerable preconditions- be it physical, mental, spatial, economic, and urban. Pandemic created a large population of people who were required to quarantine and lockdown cities. Many people lost their jobs, and could no longer afford food to eat. Such food insecurities pervaded in the U.S. that one in five households are considered food insecure. This project proposes using greenhouses as a quarantine space and means of production. During quarantine, people stay during greenhouses where they can use their time and energy to produce some food for leisure, their own consumption, or their neighbors who are food insecure.

The chosen site is an abandoned church in Gary, Indiana. It is located at the heart of downtown. The city of Gary has preconditions: a shrinking city. The population has shrunk to half of its peak since the 1960s. The population decline means less revenue for the city while an increase in vacant and blighted properties, the maintenance cost of infrastructure, and public health costs. Within these vicious cycles of urban decline, the City Methodist Church still stands and is remembered as a place of the community although its architecture is ruined.

This project proposes to install greenhouses within the existing church envelope to provide quarantine spaces during the pandemic. People will quarantine alone but participate in a shared project of urban farming. Post pandemic, the shared memory of farming will become a foundation to establish an urban farming school where different stages of the plant life cycle will be arranged in relation to the cycles of human habitation. When the abandoned church is activated again, the project can be a turning point for the city of Gary to fight against the urban decline.

Opposite: Post Covid 19 Rendering

Project Recognition | High Pass, Nominated Work

Quarantine With Green

Site and Context

The chosen site is an abandoned church in Gary, Indiana. It is located at the heart of downtown. The city of Gary has preconditions: a shrinking city. The population has shrunk to half of its peak since the 1960s. The population decline led to reduce revenue for the city while an increase in vacant and blighted properties, the costs of infrastructure, maintenance, and public health. Within these vicious cycles of urban decline, the City Methodist Church stands in ruin, but remembered as a place of the community.

Gary Lake County Superior Court

Genesis Convention Center

Parking Lot

21st Century Charter School of Gary

City Methodist Church Gary

Gary Housing Authority

Food Distribution Center

Gary Southshore Railcats

Gary City hall

Map of Covid-19 Infection Cases, Projected on the Food Insecurity Map of 2020

City of Gary

Lake County, Indiana

Area: 148.28km2

Population: 80,294

State of Indiana

The decline of the steel industry in the Rust Belt brought the city down together: its employment rates, population, city tax revenue went down, while the costs of health care and infrastructure, poverty rate, and food insecurity went up.

Those isolation units will change its spatial programs to support food production postCovid. Moreover, they will extend and reshape to support other serving purposes, such as laboratories and classrooms.

Pre-fabricated space frame allows the quick and easy construction of structure independent from the existing chruch structure. Greenhouses will be mounted on the frame.

1. Germination Room

Germination / Seeding (2-3 weeks)

Maximum Sunlight required (24 hours, 70-80% humidity, in relatively high temperature (22-28 celsius).

2. Budding Room

Roots and stems grow and require 12-18 hours of sun exposure every day, in diffused sunlight. Ideal temperature range between 20-24 celsius. Because the stage requires relatively dry and good air circulation, high tunnel greenhouse module is preferred.

3. Inflorescence Room

Inflorescence / Fertilization (6 weeks) Reduce the sun exposure (less than 12 hours), Required relatively high temperature (28 celsius). Fertilization is necessary.

4. Shared Workspace

Temperate environment for the community to gather. Provide high sceiling and easy access.

5. Cafe Lounge

Semi-outdoor environment where seating and tables are provided.

6. Farmer’s Market

Those vegetables and plants grown in the greenhouses and nearby farms could be sold in the farmer’s market in the courtyard.

Professional Works: Clover at Newtonville

SsD Architecture (December 2019 - March 2020)

Principal: Jinhee Park

My job included producing architectural drawings, models, renderings, and site visits. The drawings were produced in collaboration with BKA Architects.

Reflected Ceiling Plan

Professional Works: Clover at Newtonville

Professional Works: Phoenix Hotel

Archiworkshop (June - July 2017)

Principal: Hee-Jun Sim, Su-Jeong Park

My job was to produce schematic design for business lounge and draw construction documents for Pyeongchang Phoenix Hotel.

Professional Works: Phoenix Hotel

Archiworkshop (June - July 2017)

Principal: Hee-Jun Sim, Su-Jeong Park

One of the assignments was to design the bathrooms based on the updated ADA requirements in South Korea.

Professional Works: SFMOMA Exhibition

Bureau Spectacular (August 2016 - February 2017)

My job included producing architectural drawings, models, renderings, and site visits. One of the project I worked on was an exhibition at SFMOMA (Inside, Outside, Between, and Beyond). I fabricated museum quality models using plywood and plaster.

Photography by Injee Unshin

Principal: Jimenez Lai & Joanna Lamb

Professional Works: SFMOMA Exhibition