MAY. 2020
RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN /  PROVIDENCE, RI

REUSE OF EXISTING DIPLOMATIC TENSION
A memorial in South Korea not only commemorates victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army but also as an architectural indicator of ongoing diplomatic tension.
In South Korea, the history of sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II has been a major cause of anti-Japanese sentiment, leading to international conflict. How should one proceed with sensitive dialogue without being so delicate that no progress is made? As a response, the intervention begins by reconstructing the lost memory, a recreation of the past Embassy building, through re-using the construction fence, and existing political tension as a building material.

Visitors meet with the building, which is enclosed by a construction fence, the material of temporality. 

Narrow ramp gradually invites  down into space.


The corridor is covered with a Corten steel panel, that gives contrast with the construction fence to emphasize the penetration by gaze.

In the end, visitors encounter the reflection of the statue on the opposite side of the street. 

It is printed on a perforated panel to give an effect of fading, to depict the pass of time.


View of one the rooms of the screening space, where visitors learn about history through watch different documentaries, movies.

It is a concrete box with wooden flooring, to detach the visitors from the city, to focus better throughout an immersive experience.


And again, the exhibition ramp takes down to the underground memorial level, 

as the visitor reads through portraits and a handwritten letter from the victims.

The texture of the floor and part of the wall, achieved by mixing fly ash to strengthen the earth, 

gives the powerful feeling as if you are carving into the ground.


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