Based in Seoul, Korea, 100A Associates is an award-winning architectural practice that has published its work in the media in several countries. Co-chaired by experienced young designers An Kwang-II and Park Sol-Ha, the studio's design style and aesthetic orientation is more modern and forward-looking.

In this open class, An Kwang-II, the co-founder of the firm, impromptuly shared his design experience and insights over the years on the theme of "People, Space and Life". He started this open class with how to carry out his own design as a designer, and discussed the sensory communication and connection in design through the sharing of four projects. Before designing, they will first understand the customer's personal story, so as to integrate the human story into the design and architecture in an indirect or direct way, so that the building has the local characteristics of Korea. In addition, they also believe that in architecture, designers should modify the specific scale according to different needs, so as to bring customers a more convenient and memorable space.

Yinjispace：How do you combine the shape of the tiger with the architectural design?

100A Associates：Tiger, this place called "CHWIHOGA" is the Tiger Temple. We tried to present it as a place where tigers live.So actually in this gap, we tried to try to incorporate some stories about tigers. As I said before, in order to represent the fur of the tiger. Before the concrete hardened, we manually modified it a bit to give it a rough feel, which was used to represent the fur of the tiger. There is also the story of the tiger's tail and the story of the tiger hiding in the waterfall. I tried to integrate the tiger's story into various places as much as possible. And through this direct way, I directly expressed the story about the tiger's tail, the waterfall, and the tiger statue. There are also indirect forms, as I mentioned earlier, generally tigers usually choose high places when they sleep or sit, and such as washbasins, we choose this kind of petrified wood to express these conceptually equipment.So when people come in here without knowing that this is a story about the Tiger Temple, it will only be regarded as some design elements. As I mentioned earlier, the way to create this sustainable space in order to achieve high customer satisfaction is this. This can be understood as explaining my space to visiting guests in an interesting way and letting them understand, And if there's a better presentation of stuff that includes Tiger stories, the space should feel more precious to them. I think everyone can understand it as such, the appearance of direct display, and the form of indirect expression, the temple of the tiger, the house of the tiger, and the story of the tiger are all integrated into it.

Yinjispace：May I ask about your previous work background？ When did you form your own design style?

100A Associates：Since 2008, I have worked in a Korean design company called Need 21. In the early 2000s, it was one of the top five well-known design firms at that time, and I worked in this firm for about 6 years. Six years later, my colleague at the time, who is now my partner and the director of Park-Sol-ha, we came out together to run our own firm, and it has been 10 years now.When it comes to our design style, I think we are relatively close at present. It is a bit premature to say that we have our own style and color, and we are creating our own style. We are still thinking about exploring what color we are and what kind of pictures we can draw. About 20 years after we've been independent, which is the next 10 years, I think I can tell you more clearly what color and style we are by then.

Yinjispace：With regard to the 5 colors of the homestay in Jeju Island, what materials are used to determine them? Why did you choose these 5 colors?

100A Associates：Our thinking at the time was to know the difference between Jeju Island and the interior of South Korea, such as Seoul. We didn't want to make some morphological elements, so we focused on thinking about the invisible places and the differences in the emotional parts. Then we discovered that, like the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul.There are places with ancient buildings, and the folk villages in Jeju Island also have places with similar ancient buildings. So we actually compared the two places, and the shape is almost identical.Because both are Korean, the shape is actually almost the same. But somehow, it felt different, so we were thinking what is the difference?In the photos of the Jeju Island Folk Village, the Danqing presented here.The colors and pigments of the Hanok, are obviously different from those in the mainland. When researching this, we went straight to the airport to go back to Seoul. But on the way to Seoul Airport, we found that these five colors were hidden on the road of Jeju Island. So we unintentionally, at the airport of Jeju Island when you get off the plane and pass through the urban area of Jeju City, even if it is the same urban area as Seoul, you can feel that it is different from Seoul. This is the feeling expressed by these five colors. So in simple terms, the street trees in Jeju Island, the trees on this kind of road, are usually presented by ginkgo trees or other street trees in Seoul. But the street tree in Jeju is iron holly, which is a tree with a very special color. So it can be understood that we have found this natural color hidden in Jeju Island.