Tim Kim Portfolio

TIM KIMiamtimothykim@gmail.com

703 424 0250

Book of Curiosities

2011

MIRROR MIRROR MALL

SHINJUKU SHRINE

VERTICAL THEATRE

LAND USE CENTER

Undergraduate thesis, stuyding the phenomenon of lookism

Culture of Japan in the space of Shinjuku Station

Terrain vague in Washington D.C.

Sensitively forceful engagement space within micro-city

ROAD TO NO W HERE

WUNDERKAMMER

2011 MIRROR MIRROR MALL

2010 SHINJUKU SHRINE

2010 VERTICAL THEATRE

2009 LAND USE CENTER

2009 ROAD TO NO W HERE

2011- WUNDERKAMMER

Space of memory for Road to nowhere

Various works in the cabinet of curiosity

MIRROR MIRROR MALL Undergraduate Thesis. Seoul, Korea 2011

Lookism is appearance discrimination. Like racism, sexism, or ageism, appearance becomes factor of prejudice. Lookism creates appearance obsession. Seemingly hidden social-cultural phenomenon is applied within the city and the build-ing context. Shopping mall is reimagined through the filter of lookism.

In the space of Lookism, rather than the products being shown to the public, it is the entire image of the stores and boutiques being portrayed to the consumers. The emphasis of appearance obsession has led the building to become like a cabinet that holds images of the shops and boutiques. It is the appearance of individual shops that matters the most in the space of Lookism. It could create a building or perhaps the whole city where the façade is treated more importantly than the quality of the product being housed in the space. The public space within such place becomes a space of showing and being seen.

Individual boutiques and shops are inserted into the big cabinet like concrete structure. Individual boutiques and shops are only showing their facades to lure in the customers. Nothing else. Depending on the attraction from the look of the individual shops, people pick which stores to go into.

The project shows four typical spaces within the lookist structure.Entrance to the shopsInside the shopsBathrooms (gossip pods)Corridor + Physiognomy

Early site studies investigating typical methods of indicating individual programs on the site.

Early site studies investigating the cabinet like context.

Exploring initial ideas: creating machines to represent procedures of plastic surgery on structures.

Measuring machine Constructing machine Detailing machine

Plan

A

A

B B

Section A-A

Section B-B

Entrance to the shops, where the store judges the visitor, based on appearance.

Inside the shops are like rough storage spaces. All the glamorous appeal has been done through the appearance of the facade.

Bathrooms, which are mainly used to gossip and criticize

Corridor + Physiognomy is the run-way space where people confidently show off their appearances

Publication

Publication

HANGING GOVERNMENT Washington D.C. 2010

The term ‘Terrain Vague’ describes an urban space that is made up of layers of errors and careless mistakes that set a special zone where nothing is created. The investigation of the latent reality started with the notion of terrain vague in the capitol city, Washington D.C. Washington being the political mecca, is a holy ground. Because the land allows for errorness, the important government programed buildings are built in the sky. The government operates from the sky, floating in the air.

Operating from the sky, the project focuses on the part of the structure where the sky meets the ground, where the government meets the people. The structure represent the hidden fourth branch: the Media.

Everything that is placed in the capital city becomes a monument of its own. It becomes a metonym. Each buildings become a symbol and also the head of a specific branch. In a city that is supposed to be the brain of the country, there can not be any error within it.

The project begins with the ground. The real investigation is the relationship between the ground and the air. Between the Citizen and the Government.

The information receiver: Each state is representated by its own receivers. The receiver intakes the spoken information given from the floating government to be threaded into saved information. The data later flourishes out and intermin-gles with other related data and thus make space within the information cloud.

The receivers also provide spaces for reporters from all over the world. The receivers are the first source of information spilled from the floating government, allowing citizens to gain access to the information via media. The tower and the receivers become the fourth branch by the media. The tower represents the connection between the government and the people, as it also physically connects the ground and the sky.

A A

Plan view of the Information Receivers and the information cloud from above.

The tower that connects with the Information Receivers is equipped with individual ‘baloons’ which stores mist form of information being sent down. The baloons become spaces of viewing and entertainment within the tower.

SHINJUKU SHRINE Tokyo, Japan 2010

Japanese culture can be described with two words: “Honne and Tatemae”. “Honne” regards to one’s true feelings de-spite what the society expects, and “Tatemae” is the false façade people present just to cope with society. The culture of “Honne and Tatemae” defines private and public clearly within Japanese society. The strict idea of being overly indi-vidual puts immense stress on the people. These social terms were created to avoid conflict within the island country. The idea of Honne and Tatemae still carries through and allows the city to function by causing no frictions between the massive amounts of people in the city.

The shinjuku shrine becomes the space where individuals can relate to each other in a concealed way and find sympa-thy. it becomes a place of self reflection and an essential therapy for the contemporary tokyo-jins. A place of temporal empathetical freedom. Memorial field, where the weary and the weak find rest. Shrine, where the heartached are heard and speak. Only place of comfort and confidence in the city of 13 million.

The Tori gate that signifies entrance to a temple is morphed with entrance to the station.

Front and side elevations

The ground level is ‘memorial field’ where it plays messages of the suicide, where it is manifested as empathy to others.

The memorial field is a public space where people come seeking for comfort and relaxation from daily stress.

Confession booths are staged by the platform, where people can vent out their stress.

The recorded messages then gets to be played in the memorial field above.

The booth is 3 feet in width and length and 9 feet tall. All four sides of the cube are revolving doors that pivot and spin from the center axis. The doors are 2 planes of mirrors attached to back to back.

The roof of the booth represents the Japanese Shinto. It dedicates each partition into a place of spiritual connection and meditation. The recording and documenting devices such as a microphone and a camera drop down from the roof. By venting out through the microphone and the camera, it is as if one’s making a prayer at a miniature shrine.

Entrace to the ‘suicide platform’ is connected with corridors that are not being used. The suicide follows through the dark corridor find himself in a vertical tower where he puts his life on the rail.

Publication

Publication

LAND USE CENTER Cincinnati 2009

The Land Use Center is a collaborative effort of a number of constituents. From institutes of higher education and zon-ing boards, to contemporary artists and researchers, issues of land use are brought to a broader audience. The center is used by both artists and researchers to study LAND. The center includes artist studios, research labs, libraries, and exhibition halls. Sensitively forced engagement allows for encounters. The behavior created within the space is caused by the confetti like typology, where everything is mixed and sprayed across the land.

The focus of the project is creating a micro-city to encourage engagement between people. The micro-city is open to citizens of Cincinnati to visit and experience, and mostly to interact.

Diagrams to study how to mix different programs utilized by different groups.

Early itirations exploring the idea of intermingleness and sensitively forceful engagements.

The open planned residential units can be used for both office/lab and studio purposes.

Studio

Studio Living Private

Living Private

OfficeLab

Living

Private

Office Studio

Interactions are forced through openess in the plan and creation of alleys that can turn into micro-public forums.

The library and exhibition space also follows the order of the residential units’ openness.

Studios and offices are opened facing each other and creaing a small public space within the units.

ROAD TO NO W HERE Bryson City, 2008

The Road to Nowhere is a metonym that functions as a substitute for the forces of the road that bring it there and the questions that its existence raises. The program has 2 parts: burial ground and story telling space.

The project targets the road as a metonym and the CROSSING. The architecture does not provide solutions but rather raises questions through confrontation with the road.

The solution is a simple, powerful line that highlights the literal end of the road as a memorial. The road is bounded by white concrete bars that reflect the edge itself and also becomes a sitting-resting place for story telling.

The end of the Road is shown above.

Site Plan

Site Section

SOU FUJIMOTO ARCHITECTS WUNDERKAMMER 2011

Images from Sou Fujimoto Architects internship, Spring 2010. Projects ranged from 2010 Venice Biennale lobby space proposal to various residential projects.

Through making the models over and over, details of Japanese architecture was experienced and explored. What seemed like a final model was always altering and changing. New and obvious methods of modeling was experienced.

House Kurosawa study models

2010 Venice Biennale study model

Tokyo Apartment detail models

Chiba museum competition

private resident detail model

ST. IGNATIUS WUNDERKAMMER 2008

For the class “building assembly + analysis”, students had to pick a built work and thoroughly learn the architecture. The wood modeling of the structure covered how the building assembles from the ground to the facade.

Students were able to fully understand each part of the structure and how all the parts became one to create complete architecture.

CARD SPAN WUNDERKAMMER 2008

Support one box of cards, in the middle of a 40” span, using only one deck of cards.

We are not asked to simply solve--but more importantly to explore, play, fail, discover, risk, articulate, intend, and craft with intelligence and purpose. It is about discovering through DOING

Although the project developed from simple task of spanning and supporting, the creativity gave pleasant surprises.

The span fails to support another deck of card, but the “failure” gave birth to possibilities and potential.

What distinguishes architectural solutions from one which simply structures?

TIM KIM iamtimothykim@gmail.com http://timothykim.tk+1 703 424 0250 ㅁ

EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE

SKILL

ACHIEVEMENT

REFERENCE

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. (Virginia Tech)Bachelor of Architecture. 3.63 GPA. Magna Cum Laude. Blacksburg, Virginia. May 2011.

Externship + Travel Program. Toyko, Japan.Spring semester externship at Sou Fujimoto Architects + Japan Travel. 2010.

Washington Alexandria Architecture Consortium.Fall semester exchange student. Alexandria, Virginia. 2009.

Sou Fujimoto Architects And Associates | February 2010 - May 2010 | Extern | Toyko, JapanWorked on various projects from single house to gallery space for the 2010 Venice Biennale.Produced digital models and physical models.

Olshesky Design Group | September 2009 - January 2010 | Intern | Alexandria, VirginiaDocumentated and edited previous projects and in-process projects through photographs. Created diagrams and drawings for single house projects.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | May 2008 - August 2008 | Intern | Dulles, VirginiaAirport expansion with: SOM, Turner Construction, Parsons Management Corporation. Organized drawings and construction documents. Assigned as an assistant to six inspectors.

Computer Aided Drafting | rhinoceros 4.0, sketch up, auto cadGraphics | adobe photoshop, illustrator, indesign, flash, premiere proLanguage | korean (native), english (native), spanish (basic)Other | wood + metal working, laser camm, screen printing

Pella Prize: Undergraduate Architecture Thesis Projects. 2011 Honorable mention with recognized work.Virginia Society Competition: Clifton Forge Amtrak Station. 2011Virginia Tech semi finalist.Digging Deep: Redesigning Smithsonian Station. 2009Honorable mention.

Terry SurjanC_UP, founding chair, tsurjan@gmail.comJames Bassettassistant professor, VT school of architecture + design, jbsstt@vt.eduRobert Oliverassistant professor, VT department of geography, oliverr@vt.edu

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TIM KIMiamtimothykim@gmail.com

703 424 0250

Book of Curiosities

2011