The first interview of the my story on Korean architecture and typology was with architect Doojin Hwang, the creator of so-called rainbow cake, or mixed use, architecture. Photographer Skylar Rispens and I had to travel nearly an hour on the Seoul subway to make it to his office near the Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Once we made it to the stop for the Gyeongbokgung Palace we chose to follow the signs for exit number five. The exit spit us out right at the palace entrance, and it had to be the most gorgeous subway exit I have ever seen.
As it turns out, we needed to follow exit four instead. Skylar and I must have spent about 45 minutes wandering around the wrong side of the palace looking for Doojing Hwang’s office. Once we realized we were in the wrong area we had to retrace our steps and go back to the subway. It took us another half hour to find Doojin Hwang’s office, it was tucked back in the corner of an alley with trees and a koi pond. When we first met Doojin Hwang, we must of looked very winded because immediately he offered us cold water.
Interviewing Doojin Hwang has to be on the list of top ten interviews I have done in my career. He is a very intelligent man, he created rainbow cake architecture which is a mixed use building with commercial space on the bottom and residential space on the floors above with a rooftop garden. Rainbow cake buildings, in Hwang’s ideal world, are around five stories so that the buildings flow well with the nature around them.
Throughout the interview he showed us his published books that feature pictures of mixed use buildings in both South and North Korea, as well as all over the world.
Toward the end of the interview he discussed how he sees Seoul as a donut, it is expanding from the outside but the center is still how it was about 20 years ago. At the end of our hour and a half interview, he gave us postcards of pictures he took of Seoul in his twenties to remember our trip by. He gave me so much information for our story and so many things to write about, it makes me so excited to actually go and write.
Hwang is one of the most interesting people I have ever interviewed. He is a very intelligent man. He coined the term “Rainbow Cake” architecture in Korea, which is a mixed-use building with commercial space on the bottom and residential space on the floors above with a rooftop garden. “Rainbow Cake” buildings in Hwang’s ideal world are around five stories, and the buildings flow well with the nature. Throughout the interview, he showed us his published books, which feature pictures of mixed use buildings in both South and North Korea, as well as all over the world.
Toward the end of the interview, he discussed how he sees Seoul as a donut, a city that remains historic at its center and is sprawling at its edges. At the end of the interview, he gave us postcards of pictures he took of Seoul in his twenties to remember our trip by. He gave me so much information for our story and so many things to write about.
Blog by April Hummell / Photos by Skylar Rispens
Montana Journalism Abroad 