Faculty Profile: Yoonjee Koh

Yoonjee Koh is the Director of Intermediate Architecture Studios and full-time faculty member at The Boston Architectural College (BAC). Yoonjee is dedicated to enriching intellectual dialogue and collegiate culture within and beyond the classroom. As an educator, curator, and designer, Yoonjee's current scholarly research centers on models of architectural pedagogy in the digital environment, finding ways to extend design education to diverse communities. Her design work has been featured at MOMA PS1, Swiss Les Diablerets Congress, SwissNex, ArchDaily, Architectural Record, and her writings have been published through Docomomo International, Archinect, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), and National Conference on the Beginning Design Student (NCBDS). Yoonjee received Masters in Design Studies in History and Philosophy and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University with a concentration in Architectural Theory.

Tell us a little about your background. Where are you from and what brought you to the BAC?

Yoonjee Koh: I grew up in many different places, all of them more or less for similar durations, so whenever someone asks me where I am from, I feel like I need to give my life story. I’ve lived in Seoul, London, New Jersey, New York City, Rome, Upstate New York, Hong Kong, and now Boston! As a kid growing up in a number of places, I grew up with tremendous exposure – to various people, places, and cultures. Each place had its own way of living. Being the ‘other’ – a woman, a minority, and oftentimes a kid with a different accent and clothes – made it necessary for me to become skilled at quickly reading how people lived and adapting into something without compromising who I am. It was also perhaps this wide exposure that cultivated a sense in me that built in a natural curiosity towards how people live. Now in Boston, I wear many hats at the BAC: I teach design studios, history/theory electives, and workshops; I advise students and adjunct faculty; I work with fellow faculty to build new programs, develop curricula and learning experiences; I lead college-wide initiatives, sometimes with institutional partnerships; I write grants and gain sponsors to help build more vigorous courses. Amidst all of it, I am here because I value learning. It is always a highlight to see people of various disciplines and backgrounds pursue their academic interests. I enjoy working with students and faculty who are driven in exploring where they can be.

What first got you interested in architecture?

Yoonjee Koh: As a kid, I was never interested in architecture. I was invested in violin and had played a steady stream of performances in local and state wide arenas. At the same time, I tended to delve into whatever got my interest. If I learned ballet, I wanted to become a ballerina; if I learned tennis, I wanted to join varsity. I grew up with a deep appreciation and respect towards human pursuit from the people around me.

I went to Cornell with an intention to test my potential in an array of academic fields. I spent my first semester daydreaming about possibilities from Economics to Medicine. It was ultimately a close friend who was in the Architecture program, who invited me to the Architecture studios one day. Growing up, I used to doodle on the side of math homework how spaces could be if I were to design a library for my father or a place for myself. I never knew that this was an entire field of study! I remember being immediately drawn into the drawings, models, and all the chaotic jumble of material that was amassed in the studios - and feeling right at home. Soon, I applied, was accepted, and had a complete blast for the next five years.

In your opinion, what makes a good architect?

Yoonjee Koh: Let alone an architect, I think the way to become good at anything requires a continuous desire and dedicated energy to keep on doing it. Architecture is a field of study that encompasses a wide array of studies - in not only established disciplines of art, history, engineering, but also senses of space, movement, ambience, and etc. So to be a good architect almost calls someone to be adept in understanding multiple facets of life.

As much as I grew up in a number of places, I also traveled a lot. Both Cornell and Harvard took their architecture students on studio site trips almost every semester. Whether New York or Iceland, you were there to get a sense of the place, how people lived, how life evolved across places. I've gotten lost in dense slums of Bahrain, gotten my feet wet along the coast of Rio de Janeiro, stood still in awe in open expanses of Reykjavik in subzero weather and a fever, and sometimes even roamed around private gardens in Rome with my friend Kasia. It was all an experience. Looking back, we weren't intently looking for "architecture", but these trips instilled a sense in me that valued certain ways of living, and of being. I learned how to see. It may be the way sunlight hits a wall and casts a shadow at certain moments of the day, and knowing that shadow was designed with an intention. It also may be seeing the way how people stood in sidewalks, drinking wine, and creating space. And the fact that these are all shifting elements adds complexity onto learning architecture - there needs to be a certain flexibility, open-mindedness, a mindset for continuous learning. Back in the studios, there was also a lot of looking at what my peers and people ahead of me were doing, going to lectures, reading and seeing as much as I could and testing things out on my own. All these things that I experienced and remember have helped me to re-imagine new spaces and ways of living.

What accomplishment are you most proud of in your life?

Yoonjee Koh: I used to think of success as a moment, a point in time that could be alluded to. Looking back, however, I am probably here because of the lieu of design projects, papers, exhibits, residencies that created a domino effect to where I am now. Also, I cannot discount the "unproductive" moments that have built me as a person. It is so easy to think of accomplishments as something that have been done. Moments of absence can be as equally productive as well.

Everyone goes through downs in life. I've definitely had my share of hardship when I did not have the mental, emotional, physical capacity to perform tasks as needed. However, in that time, I took the time to reassess myself. I needed to understand who I want to be and how I want to live. If it wasn't for those times, I would probably not be able to churn things out as I do now. It's like taking a deep breath before making a presentation in front of a big crowd. In a time when there are so many places to be and so many things to do, I think it's increasingly important to have a strong center, a robust core that will not falter upon circumstances. It is probably the hardships that people are willing to overcome that makes me want to cheer on as a fellow human being.

Tell us a little about your new project, the BAC Journal. What is it and what prompted you to start this project?

Yoonjee Koh: I arrived at the BAC in 2016 as an adjunct faculty to teach Architecture studio. There were some amazing student work that were coming out of that studio, but there was no way to share it with a wider community let alone with fellow students and faculty at the BAC! At the end of the semester, I created a website that showed all the students' process and final work. I continued to build the website in the next consecutive semesters with new student work.

Three years since, there have been incredible conversations that have blossomed amongst students, some whom have now graduated and entered the professional community. It has also been a tremendous feat to get a journal printed. I cannot mention the countless nights and weekends that both the student editors and I have poured into this single piece of a journal, as well as all the people at the BAC who have been behind realizing this effort. As the institution's first student journal, I am grateful for all the dedicated energy that has made it possible to simply - show what the BAC does. For such a small college, the BAC has tremendous potential. It is about time to make them known.

The first edition of the journal comes at a fortunate time that celebrates the BAC's 130th anniversary this December 2019. Since 1889, the BAC has valued peer-learning. Whether by apprenticeship in the Club days or by simultaneous practice, the BAC has been at the forefront of recognizing how design learning occurs in multiple dimensions - in classrooms as well as in the field. The journal presents a body of work in hopes of opening up a wider context for learning as a continuation of the BAC's long-held vision.