Min Hyun-sik
Min Hyun-sik (born 21 October 1946) is a South Korean architect. Biography. Min was born in 1946, in Gyeongnam, Korea. After having worked and studied under architect Kim Swoo Geun of Space Group and architect Yoon Seung Joong of Wondoshi Architects Group (of which he had been a partner since 1980), he studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, UK, in 1989/1990. In 1992, he started his own practice H. Min Architect and Associates. In 1997, he was one of the core members to establish a school of visual arts at the Korea  National University of Arts, at which he holds a professorship to this day. His active communication with the public first became recognized with "Housing with Deep Space", exhibited in the 1992 show "Echoes of an Era". Since then he has continually presented new projects, each one of them containing creative issues, for example, "Phenomenological Aesthetics", "Madang; Specific indeterminate space", "Architectural Landscape", "Structuring Emptiness; ethics over aesthetics". Extending his architectural interests into urbanism, he participated in several urban planning and design projects, for example, "Paju Landscape Script" for Paju Book City, and the schematic design of "Gwangju, the Capital City of  Asian Culture". His works and ideas have always been the center of debate and controversy, and have marked important turning points in Korean architecture and urbanism. Most of all, his works have centered on "Structuring Emptiness", which stems from Korean traditional architecture. Min's propositions in architecture are continually concerned with "Structuring Emptiness" which is a design of potentials: as infrastructures of daily lives deeply related to the properties and intimacies of the site it sit on. This idea aims to reach beyond the level of objectification in architecture. Abstracting the geological features of the site, he creates a specific  architectural landscape. Alternative to symbolic architecture, this idea presents a way to search for different dimensions of architecture and reach beyond the level of objectification. His works are not only searching for the identity of Korean contemporary architecture but also developing and expanding those ideas to generate a theory of the future. Presented by works, publications, articles, teaching, and international exhibitions, including Venice Biennale 1996/2000/2002, "Structuring Emptiness" invited by University of Pennsylvania in 2003, and "Paju Book City" at Aedes West in Berlin, 2005, his creative ideas shows us the possibility of acquiring universality in the realm of architecture. Min