Magazine

Work alone, and you get exactly the result you'd already imagined. Producing something beyond that is what real collaboration means, says architect Han Seung-jae of Hoo-ha-ha Friends. His reason for choosing people over AI as a collaborator turns out to be surprisingly simple.

Some remember her as the daughter of the master Itami Jun (Yoo Dong-ryong). Some remember her as the principal of ITM Yooihwa Architects, the firm behind Sihojae, ITAMI JUN MUSEUM, FEZH, and Haneulsori. Others remember her as chair of the Itami Jun Architectural Culture Foundation, which runs a children's architecture school. Architect Yoo Yi-hwa carries all three roles at once — steward of an inheritance, builder of her own era's architecture, and someone opening a path for the next generation.

Reference images and hand sketches are disappearing from studio walls. In their place: scenes of startling polish, finished with a single prompt. Now that AI has changed the speed of the image itself, Kim Seok-hoon, principal of Studio Eccentric, asks: what are we actually losing — time, or judgment?

Shigeru Ban runs two practices. One is Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA); the other is the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN), a nonprofit devoted to disaster and refugee relief. What looks at first like a contradiction is, in fact, two organizations that hold each other up in his hands — a single method engineered so that its two halves support one another. This August in Seoul, we hear how that thread has been woven together.

The warmth between people. The value of empty space. The pleasure of thinking slowly. We chase these things every weekend, wandering somewhere new, choosing the long way around just for the experience of it. None of this is far from "the beauty of poverty" — the idea architect Seung H-Sang has championed for over 50 years through his work, lectures, and writing. We call on him now. In 2026, why are we so hungry for his voice?