SUH ARCHITECTS

SUH ARCHITECTS + SUH DO HO

Internship

As an intern at Suh Architects I was a part of the model-making team that would help the process of developing the Venice Bienalle project “In Between Hotel”, a collaboration between Suh Architects, Artist Suh Do Ho, and Peter Schreyer (Executive Automotive Designer of KIA at the time). The concept of the project was a tiny home retrofitted onto the iconic KIA Bongo mini pickup truck. Witnessing legendary entities working together was an honor as I witnessed the development of a joint project between a prestigious architect, a world famous artist, and a revolutionary industrial designer.

My responsibilities in the project included production of scale models ranging from 1:16 to 1:1 and detail experimentation.

The “In Between Hotel” was designed with the city tourist in mind. As tourism in the city becomes prominent there is an increasing need for lodging, but hotels, motels, and Airbnb’s are either unintegrated into the local culture and cityscape or feel like someone else’s home. Suh Do Ho’s work explores home, space, memory, emotion, individuality, and collectivity through various media, and some of his works directly address his experience of being uprooted and lodged and integrated into another culture. With the technical and design prowess of Suh Architects and Peter Schreyer, Suh Do Ho explores the possibility of a home on wheels, not unlike a van home, but with a management staff and circulation system where unused parking spaces, or designated spaces in-between buildings in neighborhoods can be occupied by visitors for short stays in the neighborhood to experience the local life.

The design process of this conceptual project consisted of ideation, market research, digital model making, physical model making, material sample analysis, consultation with fabricators and manufacturers, and multiple rounds of design meetings. I was involved in the physical model making which included 16:1 scale models for overall structure and layout, and 1:! scale models to iterate material conjunctions and detail finishes.