SsD is a team of Harvard graduates, Jinhee Park and John Hong that established their firm in 2003 while working together on three townhouses in Cambridge and have since moved on to bigger projects including the elegant White Block Gallery and Songpa Micro-Housing block, below.

SsD (short for Single Speed Architecture) proposes a project that try address the issue of  housing shortage than in one of the world’s most densely populated cities, nearly twice as dense as New York City. Located in Seoul’s largest district, the Songpa Micro-Housing functions as a micro urban village in which the line between individual living units and semi-public and open-program spaces are blurred.

Description of the project by SsD

The problem of urban density and housing costs is global. As unit types get smaller however, micro‐ housing has the danger of becoming a provisional housing type with little social value. By mining the discrepancy between maximum floor area ratios and maximum zoning envelopes, Songpa Micro‐ Housing provides a new typology that extends the limits of the unit to also include semi‐public circulation, balconies, and visual extensions. Like the ambiguous gel around a tapioca pearl, this ‘Tapioca Space’ becomes a soft intersection between public/private and interior/exterior, creating social fabrics between neighbors. 

In this way, the ambition of the project is to prove that ‘space’ and ‘size’ are actually separate concepts.

In terms of dynamically flexible mixed‐use housing, fourteen 'unit blocks' allow residents to either claim a single unit, or in the case where a couple or friends require more space, recombine the blocks for larger configurations.

Also, units can be used for differing programs such as galleries or work spaces. This flexibility allows occupants to live in the building longer and thus more sustainably as they will not have to move out with changing situations. Finally, the micro‐auditorium / cafe on the ground floor and basement are spatially linked to the units as a shared living room.

While the zoning regulations require the building be lifted for parking, the resulting open ground plane can be constantly reprogrammed for differing events such as performances, art openings, or gatherings. Pedestrian traffic is pulled from the street down through the micro‐auditorium steps, connecting city, building, and residents to the exhibition spaces below.

CREDITS. TECHNICAL SHEET.-

Architects.- SsD
Architects in Charge.- Jinhee Park AIA, John Hong, SsD
Architect of Record.- Dyne Architects
Structural Engineer.- Mirae Structural Design Group
Construction Manager.- Kiro Construction

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Jinhee Park received a Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a B.F.A. in Industrial Design from Seoul National University. Her work at SsD has been celebrated through numerous awards including a 2015 Best in Competition Award from AIANY, a 2012 Architecture Vanguard from Architectural Record, the 2009 AIA Young Architects Award, and the 2007 Young Architects Forum Award from the Architectural League of New York. Jinhee is currently Adjunct Professor at Columbia GSAPP and from 2009-13 she has served as Design Critic in Architecture at the Harvard GSD. Previous appointments include Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture CCNY in 2014, the Morgenstern Chair Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2008, and the Sasaki Distinguished Visiting Critic at the Boston Architectural College in 2007.

John Hong AIA, LEED AP received a Master in Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a B.S. in Architecture with Honors from the University of Virginia. His work with SsD has been recognized with many awards including the 2012 Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York, the 2006 AIA Young Architects award, and the 2004 Metropolis Next Generation Prize. John is currently Associate Professor at Seoul National University. In 2014, he taught as Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and in  2007-13 he served as Associate Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design as well as holding appointments as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture CCNY from 2012-13.

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