as found
The exhibition in Seongsu brought together Order Matter, a London and Seoul based architectural practice, and architectural photographer Simone Bossi.
The project was organised around a shared interest in the idea of as found. Rather than approaching it as a stylistic reference, both practices understood it as a position. Photographs and objects were curated as parallel responses to the same theme, placed within an existing condition rather than imposed upon it.
As found does not describe an aesthetic of rawness. It refers to a way of working with what is already present. The intention is not to overwrite a condition, but to align with it so that new elements may settle without force. When placed with restraint, an intervention may feel as if it had always belonged.
The exhibition was conceived as a temporary occupation that would clarify rather than transform its setting.
The project took place in a vacant commercial building in Seongsu, Seoul, suspended between demolition and refurbishment. Seongsu is a district shaped by its industrial past, where former factories and small manufacturing buildings have gradually been repurposed. Today, these spaces frequently host temporary exhibitions and pop ups, creating a condition where permanence and ephemerality coexist.
Formerly a convenience store with housing above, the building retained traces of its everyday life even in its stripped condition. On the upper floors, which had previously been residential, walls were finished with layered wallpaper typical of Korean housing. Over time, patterns and coverings had accumulated irregularly, creating surfaces marked by repeated applications.
To return the space to a more elemental state, layers of wallpaper and backing paper were removed where possible. In some areas, the underlying paper could not be fully detached and remained visible. These residual traces became part of the exhibition condition.
The structure was not treated as a neutral container, but as an existing order into which the exhibition would enter.
Extending from the temporariness of the site, we asked what becomes possible only because the space is not permanent.
On the ground floor, a new large aluminium window was introduced. Rather than correcting the irregular structure shaped by time, the frame was deliberately set apart from it. If conceived as permanent, the window would have required forced alignment and sealed junctions to create a seamless fit. Because the intervention was temporary, these differences were not reconciled. The new frame stands according to its own order, visibly distinct from the uneven structure that surrounds it.
A black platform was inserted to support the objects. The existing concrete floor was too rough and uneven to allow precise placement. Inspired by Noriyuki Haraguchi’s Oil Pool from 1971, the platform established a dense reflective plane within the raw interior. Finished in black lacquer and set back from the walls, it reads as a temporary layer rather than a replacement. Its vulnerability to wear would make it unsuitable in a permanent commercial context, yet within a provisional occupation this fragility was accepted.
Lighting was constructed from adapted industrial raceway profiles housing strip lights. Rather than concealing imperfections, illumination revealed surface transitions and irregularities. The spatial strategy did not attempt to perfect the building. It worked within its limits, allowing new gestures to remain precise yet clearly temporary.
On the ground floor, Order Matter presented the Pebble Series as a field of objects. Inspired by stones gathered along a riverbed, the pieces were conceived not simply as furniture but as singular masses. Each object can stand independently or gather into a larger horizontal order.
The construction embodies a dialogue between materials. A cast aluminium frame integrates perimeter and legs into one continuous structure. Within it, a twenty millimetre stone slab is inset. Aluminium provides structural clarity and lightness, while stone offers surface stability and depth. Each material compensates for the limitations of the other, forming a balanced whole.
The making process combines digital modelling, sand casting, CNC cutting and manual adjustment. Precision and irregularity coexist.
On the upper floors, the Square Arc chair appeared first in stainless steel and then in plywood. The geometry remained constant while material altered weight and presence. Steel reflected its surroundings sharply, while plywood absorbed light and introduced warmth.
Simone Bossi’s photographs were mounted directly onto layers of chobaeji, the traditional Korean backing paper typically used beneath wallpaper. Rather than introducing separate frames, two layers of chobaeji were applied to the wall as a ground. The photographs, already printed, were then placed onto this surface.
This decision emerged from the existing residential condition. Since the upper floors had originally been finished with wallpaper and backing layers, using the same material allowed the photographs to sit within the building’s material language. The paper functioned as both background and frame, avoiding the insertion of a foreign object. The images became another layer within the accumulated surfaces of the space.
Across floors, objects and images were encountered sequentially rather than as a single composition. Each established a relationship with its immediate surroundings, allowing the existing condition to remain legible.
The exhibition existed only briefly within a structure awaiting change. Yet it sought to articulate a consistent position.
As found extends beyond the appearance of having always been there. It is not about disguising the new as old. Rather, it concerns how an intervention enters an existing order and forms another layer within it. Over time, even new constructions become part of what precedes them. What matters is whether they participate in a larger continuity.
In this suspended building, the exhibition operated as a temporary layer within an ongoing sequence of change. It neither erased what was present nor attempted to dominate it. Instead, objects and images were positioned as additional orders within an existing one, contributing to a condition that could continue beyond their brief occupation.
