SsD

“Micro” does not describe physical size but relativity among programs, perceptions, and contexts. By focusing on the smallest common denominator, Micro-Urbanism proposes solutions that mediate the small details and the big picture. Understanding the relations of hierarchy, recombination, and interconnection among groups and their components reveals their critical issues and potentials. Architecture, which is static in nature, is being challenged to accommodate rising urban density, housing cost and environmentally extortive development. These challenges are made especially evident as household types and sizes fluctuate due to changing definitions of family and gender roles and life events such as marriage, divorce, childbirth, death, and longevity. SsD Architecture and Urbanism proposes a new housing prototype in which selfsufficient, micro units are combined into what they are calling tapioca spaces: shared, ambiguous spaces that provide opportunities for extending the perceptual and behavioral boundaries of individual units. Like the gel around tapioca pearl, soft intersections between public/private and interior/exterior allow flexible and diverse unit combinations, encouraging longer occupancy cycles and generating a robust, social fabric for sustainable community growth.

Wonik Group
Blue Sky Investment
Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, and the grant program Fund for Korean Art Abroad

SsD, architect: Jinhee Park, Sohun Kang, Eunjin Shin, Sarah Short, Yoon Cha, Youjin Jaegal, Gyuha Lee
Arup, structure engineering consultant: Rory McGowan, Connor McGrath