Five Projects • South Korea
Exhibition · Chicago, IL, US
Five Projects • South Korea (2020-2023)
“Chicago’s architectural legacy is one of resilience, innovation, and bold experimentation. After the Great Fire of 1871, the city transformed into a crucible for modern architectural thought, attracting visionary architects such as William LeBaron Jenney, Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, and later, Frank Lloyd Wright. Chicago became the birthplace of the skyscraper, redefining what cities could be, and establishing itself as a global leader in architectural innovation. The legacy continued with Mies van der Rohe, whose modernist principles at IIT in the 20th century laid the foundation for contemporary skyscrapers worldwide.
This deep-rooted culture of experimentation and design excellence continues to attract world-class architects to Chicago today. It’s a city where architecture is not just practiced, but celebrated—where buildings become conversations between architects and an educated, design-conscious public. Thanks to organizations like the Chicago Architecture Center, Chicagoans are active participants in shaping the design of their city, and the city’s influence has spread globally.
STLarchitects stands as a testament to this ongoing tradition of architectural excellence. As a Chicago-based firm, STL has distinguished itself not only for the innovative quality of its work but for its ability to extend the city’s architectural DNA across borders. Nowhere is this more evident than in South Korea, where STL has built a strong reputation, winning or being finalists in five major competitions. Their work in South Korea reflects a blend of creative experimentation and cultural sensitivity, bringing fresh perspectives to the architectural landscape there.
STL’s designs push boundaries by reimagining the potential of new materials, creating structures that are not just functional but visionary—most notably, museums that offer immersive, forward-thinking experiences. These projects are more than just buildings; they are cultural bridges that connect Chicago’s rich architectural history with the dynamic urban fabric of South Korea.
In their work abroad, STLarchitects embody the spirit of Chicago’s architectural legacy. They show that architecture, as much as it is a local art, is also a universal language—one that can bridge continents, cultures, and ideas. STL’s successes in South Korea are proof that Chicago’s architectural influence is truly global.”
– Lynn Osmond, former CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center –
“Architecture has been a global profession since before people knew there was a globe. Among others, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, and of course Romans scattered their architectural legacies across continents, oceans, cultures, and even time itself: we still feel their vigorous presence today. Modern technology has simplified and extended that process to a degree that means it is perfectly reasonable to practice anywhere and be competitive everywhere.
And yet, it still seems surprising when a modestly sized Chicago architecture firm wins an important commission in a faraway place, as STLarchitects did recently in securing the Jinju National Museum in Jinju, Republic of Korea. In this case, the commission was confirmed through an international competition, a great leveling device in which a jury reviews submissions without knowing their origin (either the firm or their location); and competitors, in most cases, must appeal to jurors without speaking to them directly. In theory, selection is thus neutral relative to preconceived notions of experience, knowledge, or reputation. The strength of an idea (conveyed through image and minimal text) is supposed to carry the day.
So how is it that an architectural team helmed by two Spaniards practicing in Chicago submits the most persuasive case for a new cultural museum in Korea? Talk about global practice.
Our argument would be three-fold. First, sometimes practice actually does make perfect. Jinju is the fourth Korean competition in which STL has been a finalist or received commendation, and the sixth they’ve entered in five years. That’s already a remarkable record: most architects never “place” in an international competition—many with hundreds of submissions; even fewer are finalists; and almost none are repeat finalists. Simple statistics argue against it, and in practice, few firms are willing to keep trying.
Not so here. With each project, these architects attack the project with an ever more refined set of tools: simple, abstract forms, elegantly articulated; carefully calibrated building envelopes; site plans that juxtapose the building and its setting; subtle references to traditional building form and technology; strong urban gestures; and a steadfast embrace of modern formal languages.
Which leads to our second proposition: though the visual expression celebrates Korean precedent, the rigor of the architectural enterprise—such as the willingness to revisit a small number of architectural conditions again and again—makes these very Chicago buildings. That hunt for the sublime, the impossible, the perfect is vintage Mies, and it animates every one of these Korean projects (as well much of the rest of the firm’s work).
Third, STL, and particularly its two principals, Luis Collado and Jose Luis de la Fuente, get it right—achieving that delicate balance between tradition and invention—and juries notice. So should we. This is a mature firm, not just in age (though they have been in practice together for nearly 30 years), but in intent and execution, the fulsome result of years of research and dedication. Look across their Korean portfolio. Notice the sectional and plan clarity: there are no gymnastics here; no plastic manipulation of form for form’s sake. The architects are instead comfortable with a quiet, elegant expression of simple forms and refined material assemblies.
Are the buildings Western? Certainly: stereometry prevails, with a predilection for transparency and machine precision. But the buildings also recognize and pay homage to the economy of form, expression, and means that characterize traditional Korean architecture (as opposed to the more expressive tendencies of its Asian cousins). These are, essentially, elegant pavilions set into restrained, ordered landscapes.
So here we are, with a portfolio of beautiful, typologically and formally similar buildings, designed in Chicago by Spanish and American (and Chilean and Chinese and Indian and Puerto Rican and likely more) architects, nearly all of which have captured the attention of Korean architectural juries. Certainly, both the practice and its buildings prove the concept of architecture as export capital, now, as it has been in the past. And, we think, that Chicago continues to be an important hub of architectural discourse and innovation.
More immediately, we’re convinced the work of STLarchitects offers important new growth on the Chicago architectural tree. Informed, no doubt, by the principals’ early experience at that most venerable of Chicago architectural institutions, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, but also by their educations and life experience in Madrid, Collado and de la Fuente (and their team) are generating ideas and buildings that draw on the detail-driven rigor of the first and second Chicago schools and imbue it with a fresh energy, one that is international in intent, yet sensitive—and responsive—to local conditions.
Call it empathy, perhaps; but it marks a maturing of modernism that in the hands of these practitioners delivers an important message for architecture everywhere: the promise of a more thoughtful future.”
– Reed Kroloff, Dean of IIT College of Architecture & Mark Sexton FAIA, Principal of Krueck Sexton Partners–
