Mokdong Jeil Church
The Religious Value of Longing
There are several elements I consider whenever I plan to construct a church building. These are
associated with dealing with a fundamental problem to express non-material things - the essential values of the church derived from invisible spirituality; the setting up of cirteria involving regionalism (namely, the geographic context); the sociality of a church, or strictly speaking, the
architectural system as a mechanism to share interactive feelings with a community; and values on
social convention. In particular, the criteria of expressing the common aspects of religion can be
varied depending on the specific values represented by each church.
The basic design intention of this project aimed to demonstrate the fundamental nature of an
asymmetric structure. This means to experience and experiment the various borders between materials
and nonmaterials, including an architectural experience with the states of gravity and non-gravity;
a longing and awe for an infinite vertical approach applied to the serenity of a horizontal space;
an architectural experience involving the vitality of light; and an experience involving religious values and the narrative transformation of architecture.
Location: 324-2, Shinjeong-dong. Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, Korea
Site area: 660 sqm
Building area: 385,74 sqm
Gross floor area: 4.964,798 sqm
Design: Sep. 2010 - Sep 2011
Construction: Dec. 2011 - Feb. 2014
