Korean Architecture Symposium at Harvard GSD: ‘+82+82: From Independence to Acceleration’

Organized by Korea GSD^{hereafter KGSD}, a Korean student organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, ‘+82+82: From Independence to Acceleration’ is a one-day symposium examining how speed has shaped contemporary architecture and urbanism in South Korea through the historical and spatial conditions produced by the country’s rapid modernization. +82 is South Korea’s country code, while its repetition, ‘82 82,’ evokes ‘ppalli-ppalli(faster, faster)’, a common Korean expression meaning “faster, faster.” Shaped by colonialism, division, war, reconstruction, industrialization, and urbanization, speed began as a means of survival and became embedded in the logic of development itself. Yet the architectural and urban conditions produced by rapid modernization have received limited critical examination.

Taking speed as a framework, the symposium examines how Korean society has absorbed, tested, and transformed architectural and urban systems over the past eight decades. It also explores what comes after the model of modernization through questions of land and development, density and hybridity, everyday architecture, ways of living, and different modes of intervention. To explore these questions, the symposium brings together architects, theorists, and researchers working from different cultural and geographic positions. Rather than treating Korea as an exceptional model, it considers the country alongside other cities that have undergone rapid change, examining their divergent trajectories and responses.

1. Overview
– Title: +82+82: From Independence to Acceleration
– Date: October 17, 2026
– Location: Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, Harvard Graduate School of Design

2. Program
2-1. Session1: Context
– Welcome Remarks: Grace La, Acting Consul General
– Introduction: KGSD
– Presentation I: Contextualizing Korean Architecture / SungHong Kim

2-2. Session 2: Scale
– Presentation II: Kwang Soo Kim (Studio K Works)
– Presentation III: Richard Kim (KPF New York)
– Dialogue + Q&A: KGSD & Speakers

2-3. Session 3: Position
– Presentation IV: Nahyun Hwang and David Eugin Moon (NHDM)
– Presentation V: Daniel Valle (Daniel Valle Architects)
– Dialogue + Q&A: KGSD & Speakers

2-4. Session 4: Vernacular
– Presentation VI: ByoungSoo Cho (BCHO Architects)
– Dialogue + Q&A: KGSD & Speaker

2-5. Closing
– Roundtable Discussion: All Speakers & Grace La
– Closing Remarks: KGSD

3. Contact
– KGSD