Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 45

The day after the contest announcement, Woo-jin’s team had to meet as soon as class was over.

Woo-jin hadn’t expected Jayden and So-yeon to be so eager. They were practically bouncing with energy to start the project.

“Hey, Woo-jin! Hurry up! We’ve been waiting for 30 minutes already!”

“That’s because you came 30 minutes early.”

“So-yeon! Woo-jin seems too lazy. Let’s get him to hurry up!”

“I agree. He needs to be scolded.”

Woo-jin sighed, watching Jayden and So-yeon getting along so well.

So-yeon, who usually nagged Jayden for being noisy in the faculty office, had somehow teamed up with him once the project started.

It seemed they had made Woo-jin their common target.

“Sigh, you two. Stop with the nonsense and let’s start working.”

“Jayden is a genius. You’re the only one who’s behind, Woo-jin.”

“Maybe Jayden is half right.”

“Besides, So-yeon and I have already been brainstorming for the past 30 minutes.”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

Thanks to Jayden, who was talking non-stop, the team had a bit too much energy.

However, when Woo-jin opened his laptop and the meeting began, all three became serious.

“Then, let’s hear what you two have been talking about.”

As Woo-jin started, Jayden excitedly spread out his sketches.

“Here, look at this, Woo-jin.”

“What is it?”

“It’s the front of the nursing home that I designed.”

“Hmm…?”

So-yeon agreed, “That’s right. I came up with the design idea, and Jayden made sketches based on that.”

The facade was the front design of the building that people would see from the outside.

Jayden’s sketch was impressive at first glance.

Jayden was waiting for Woo-jin’s praise, his eyes sparkling like a dog bringing back a ball.

So-yeon was also waiting for Woo-jin’s opinion with an expectant look.

Woo-jin looked at their excited faces and sighed softly. “Hmm,” he said, a small smile on his lips.

“What’s the idea?”

So-yeon, who had come up with the idea, quickly explained, “Cozy and comfortable. Like clouds in the sky, we wanted it to feel soft and rounded.”

“Oho.”

As Woo-jin listened to So-yeon’s explanation and looked at the sketch again, Jayden slyly added, “But curved building exteriors are hard to build and not efficient, right?”

“That’s right.”

“So, like Lego, I made small cube shapes into modules and arranged them to give a curved feel.”

In architecture, modularization means grouping specific structures, making patterns, and arranging them.

In Jayden’s sketch, cube shapes were moving up and down, connected to make a smooth curve.

Woo-jin thought the sketch was quite impressive.

‘He might seem a bit clueless, but is he still a future star architect?’

However, no matter how impressive Jayden’s sketch was, Woo-jin shook his head.

He thought their design process was wrong.

“Okay, Jayden. And So-yeon.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s great that it’s impressive, but we’re doing things in the wrong order.”

“What?”

Woo-jin turned to Jayden, who looked a little sad, and said, “We’re not designing sculptures, we’re designing buildings, right?”

So-yeon answered, “That’s right. We are.”

Woo-jin continued, “Of course, being pretty is important, but we need to think about ‘people’ first.”

Jayden and So-yeon were quiet for a moment at Woo-jin’s words.

They weren’t upset that Woo-jin didn’t praise them.

They weren’t that childish.

Instead, they were trying to understand what Woo-jin meant.

“Architecture is more than just pretty shapes,” Woo-jin said, his voice becoming more serious. “It’s a vessel. It holds people’s lives.”

Of course, these weren’t Woo-jin’s own words.

It was just a sentence that had stuck with him from his work in the field.

Woo-jin continued, “We need to understand the lives of the people who will use the nursing home first. We know the dictionary definition, but that’s all.”

“Hmm……”

So-yeon made a noise, and Woo-jin continued, “What we need most right now is research material.”

“Research?” Jayden asked, and Woo-jin nodded.

“That’s right. Research.”

Woo-jin’s explanation was long, but the main point was simple.

Before designing a building, you need to understand the people who will use it.

And for that, you need thorough research.

This was the main idea of Woo-jin’s explanation.

“It’s like trying to cook without enough ingredients. If you try to make something with what you have, it will taste bland.”

“Hmph……”

Jayden’s sketch was impressive.

But Woo-jin thought it lacked substance.

The same went for So-yeon’s idea.

The idea of ‘coziness,’ which came from the idea that nursing homes should be comfortable, felt vague.

So-yeon understood Woo-jin’s words and nodded. “The cooking ingredients you’re talking about are the research on nursing homes, right?”

“That’s exactly right.”

Jayden also nodded and said, “So that’s why I felt unsure about my sketches. I was sure they were perfect, though.”

In a way, finding and analyzing references is the most basic thing in design.

However, So-yeon and Jayden were still new, so they hadn’t learned this process.

It was just something they hadn’t thought of.

When they heard Woo-jin’s explanation, they felt like their heads were clearing.

They finally realized why they had felt stuck while designing.

“Okay, then shall we start over from the beginning?”

At Woo-jin’s words, they both nodded, and Woo-jin opened his laptop and began to guide them.

As Woo-jin joined and the meeting began, the team project became even more lively.

“Jayden, how about you start by looking up nursing home designs?”

“Okay. I’ll focus on American cases.”

“Oh, right. Jayden is good at English, so he can find cases from other countries.”

As the work started again, Jayden’s energy came back to life.

“What? Good at English? I’m British!”

Woo-jin, who had assigned the case study to Jayden, now asked So-yeon to research ‘user experience’.

“A nursing home is a building with a purpose, right?”

“Well, I looked up the definition… It says, [A health facility with equipment to house and care for patients].”

“That’s right. So, I think UX (User Experience) design will be important for this contest.”

“I agree. UX design is like the ‘human life’ that you said we should include in the architecture.”

UX design is about thinking about how people will use a facility or service as the main focus of the design.

Nursing homes help elderly people who can’t live on their own to get medical care.

So, what kind of experience will the elderly have while using this facility?

Woo-jin is saying that focusing on this is the core of UX design.

“So-yeon, could you look into what kind of facilities nursing homes usually have? And how they work day-to-day?”

“Okay, Oppa.”

“First, find the important facilities that must be included, and then organize the ideas separately.”

“Okay. Leave it to me.”

So-yeon was given a clear role, and Jayden, who was already doing research, asked Woo-jin, “Then, what are you going to do, Woo-jin?”

So-yeon also looked at Woo-jin with a curious look. Instead of answering, Woo-jin showed them his laptop screen.

“Site. I’m going to do a site analysis.”

“Aha?”

“I’m going to research what kind of building can be built in what location, the site type, and the surrounding area.”

The SPDC contest is a real architectural contest that uses the winning design.

It is almost the only contest like this for students.

So, when the contest theme is announced, they also give a land map where the building will be built.

Woo-jin is going to use the land map to analyze what kind of building can be built on the site.

“How big can the building be? How high? What kind of design should be used to match the area?”

Jayden and So-yeon nodded.

Woo-jin was going to do something that only he could do well.

In most teams, they ask professors for advice on these things.

Even if students study hard, it’s hard to know the practical side without experience.

If you don’t know about building codes, it’s not easy to do a site analysis.

It might be different for seniors.

Tap tap- Tap- Tap-

As each person worked, the sound of the keyboards filled the quiet office.

Everyone was focused on their work.

So-yeon, who had been working for a while, glanced at Woo-jin, who was focused on the monitor.

‘How could he think of all this?’

So-yeon thought Woo-jin was mysterious.

He was only a year older, and still a freshman.

But he seemed so knowledgeable about architecture that she wondered if he was a professor.

Also, the studio that Woo-jin had opened near the school was growing every day.

Jayden said they made and delivered architectural models there, but it was hard to believe a freshman could do this.

‘WJ Studio, I never knew it was a real company. And he’s the CEO?’

So-yeon shook her head.

Understanding this Oppa seemed impossible.