A Voyage Toward the Lake

After many years of design practice in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, Shin Design Lab decided to embark on a new challenge. We sought a place that could embrace creative people and inspire diverse forms of work—one that would go beyond a conventional workplace and actively realize our core values of community activation and sustainable development.

Rather than setting out on a larger voyage across the sea, Shin Design Lab chose to change course toward Chuncheon, a lakeside city in Gangwon Province where regional decline is rapidly accelerating. This decision was an intentional commitment to engage with the challenges of our time, shaped by a sense of moral debt for having benefited from Korea's major historical achievements (independence, industrialization, and democratization) and by gratitude toward previous generations.

After five years of site selection, land acquisition, design, and construction, the place was completed. A mixed-use cultural complex comprising design studios, a cafe, a gallery, an art library, an auditorium, and multiple gardens now stands at the western edge beyond Lake Uiam in Chuncheon.

A Dialogue Between Tradition and the Future

The Shin Design Lab Campus accommodates a wide range of programs to support community activation, with its spatial organization inspired by traditional Korean architecture. The main design studios are oriented due south, while the width of the courtyard and the floor-to-ceiling heights were carefully calibrated in response to neighboring buildings, enabling the complex to adapt wisely to Gangwon's cold winter climate.

The auditorium, a space for education and performance, is located on the eastern side, where the rising sun symbolizes inspiration and creativity directed toward a new future. The gallery, drawing inspiration from the placement of Jibokjae, the royal archive of Gyeongbokgung Palace, is positioned to the west. This minimizes direct sunlight during peak viewing hours, while allowing the warm glow of the setting sun to render the artworks inside more atmospheric at dusk.

On the northern side, the cafe and art library function like a traditional front courtyard or gate, becoming a space of encounter and communication for those who visit the campus.

The Courtyard and the Bird Garden (Rooftop) That Holds Time

The inner courtyard between the two buildings was designed not merely as a landscape space but as a place for diverse cultural and artistic activities. Its proportions and scale were inspired by the courtyards of hyanggyo, Confucian academies from the Joseon Dynasty found throughout Gangwon Province. Ten katsura trees planted there release a sweet, sugarcane-like fragrance in summer, while their leaves change color with the seasons, allowing the courtyard to hold a sense of time and seasonal rhythm.

The Bird Garden on the cafe rooftop takes an alternative approach to conventional rooftop landscaping, which is difficult to maintain during harsh winters. Instead of artificial management, it prioritizes natural pollination by birds and insects, allowing native plants from the surrounding area to take root, fade, and regenerate year after year in repeating cycles of life.

Here, bricks absorb the passage of years.

Seasons express change through color and scent.

And the rooftop landscape, transformed annually, becomes a quiet record of time like tree rings that do not accumulate.

Beyond Architecture

Beyond serving as a place for designing architecture and outdoor spaces, this site has become a platform for cultural and social life in a small city facing the risk of decline. It hosts a successful art fair (Chuncheon Art Road), welcomes world-renowned scholars through public lecture programs (The Grand Lecture), brings young people together through group social events (Hamkke Seomyeon—a community matchmaking program), and provides a stage for a wide range of performances.