Architect Hong Tae-sun, composer of space
Hong compares architecture to music in CICI lecture at Eygptian ambassador's residence
Some who have explored different fields in their career know how to create synergy by combining them together. Architect Hong Tae-sun is one such person, integrating music into his architectural practice.
Hong, director of architecture firm YKH Associates, loves to play piano in his studio while reminiscing about how he badly wanted to be a pianist before he went to college. Hong, who ultimately became an architect after graduating from Yale's School of Architecture, relates architectural design to music.
'Architects and composers share common ground in terms of techniques of macro, micro, layering and repetition. Both need to know how to read a musical score or a blueprint. What differentiates them is that music is for sound and architecture is for space,' Hong said in a lecture delivered during a meeting organized by the Corea Image Communication Institute at the residence of the Egyptian Ambassador to Korea Khaled Abdel Rahman, Tuesday.
The architect also stressed his pragmatic approach to architecture as a 'problem solver.' 'I think an architect is someone who solves problems, considering all different factors before they design a building,' he said.
Hong is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He earned is BA from Oberlin College and Master of Architecture from Yale. Among his team's projects are the Hillmaru Country Club & Golf Hotel in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province; the Sebyeol Brewery in Paju, Gyeonggi Province; and a 12-story building in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul inspired by American minimalist artist Donald Judd.
'Anything you learned is not going away. It is within you,' he said. 'When you learn pieces, you never get there. It is like boiling water ― liquid until it gets to the point of becoming vapor.'
Among the attendants at the CICI lecture were Egyptian Ambassador Khaled Abdel Rahman as the host of the event, Swiss Ambassador Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli, New Zealand Ambassador Dawn Bennet and EU Ambassador Maria Castillo Fernandez.
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