Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 55

Bruno Sanchez blurted out in Spanish, surprised. “¡No puedo creerlo!” (I can’t believe it!)

He had been using mostly English since coming to Korea, but the exclamation that came out unconsciously was in his native language.

‘I can’t believe it. I really can’t believe it. That kid is a Korean undergraduate?’

Bruno had recently fallen into a bit of a rut.

As a designer, he was enjoying the peak of his career, but that was separate from his concerns about design.

The more Bruno knew about design, the more he thought about what architecture really meant.

‘Yes,’ he thought. ‘Architecture is about finding beauty, even when there are limits.’

Lately, Bruno was interested in non-formal architecture, where designs are not set in stone.

After designing buildings for many years, his work started to look similar.

Bruno was trying hard to change his style.

It could be called his architectural design style, but Bruno didn’t want to settle for that.

He believed that only by breaking out of his shell once more could he reach the true ideal of architecture that he was pursuing.

But his ‘frame’ of decades was not something that could be easily broken.

So Bruno’s worry deepened even further.

‘Human life formed in relationships. The vessel that should contain it is the essence of architecture, and what is needed for architecture to play that role is the architectural style…….’

Architecture has evolved for thousands of years to allow humans to live comfortable lives.

What was created in that process was the framework of formalized architecture.

But what Bruno was recently thinking about was breaking out of that framework and creating new architecture.

While thinking about architectural design, he faced a paradox that was directly opposed to the purpose of architecture as a field of study.

‘If you don’t consider the user’s convenience, can it really be architecture?’

‘A sculpture that simply pursues beauty and a building that must contain human life. Perhaps I am thinking meaninglessly on that boundary…….’

This homework that Bruno had given himself had been spinning around in the same logical structure like a hamster wheel for several years already.

This was a contradiction that could never be easily resolved.

But just today.

In an unexpected place.

Bruno got a hint today, in a surprising place. From a college freshman.

He couldn’t believe it. ‘Design as a constraint… why didn’t I think of that?’

Design as a means, not as an end.

He didn’t know if the kid in front of the platform had the same worries as him, but regardless, Bruno couldn’t help but admire him.

To be able to confidently tell a story with this level of insight meant that his own design philosophy was firmly established.

Bruno saw something in that freshman that was difficult to have even after decades in the industry.

‘What kind of experience do you have to have to have that kind of insight at that age? What kind of education do they have in Korea……. No, that kid must be special.’

From the moment he received the call from Chairman Rodrigo.

Bruno’s mood had been consistently unpleasant until this morning.

He had no choice but to attend as a judge because he had made an appointment with the chairman of the Seoul Design Foundation.

He sat in the judge’s seat thinking only of finishing the judging as quickly as possible and returning.

But the works submitted to the contest showed unexpected quality.

His mood gradually improved as the judging progressed.

And after the final presentation of this final judging stage began.

Bruno had no choice but to forget all the unpleasantness he had.

He had received too great a gift from that young designer to waste emotions on trivial and worthless requests.

‘Yes. Now show me what kind of architecture you thought about on the constraint of design…….’

In the silence where even breathing could not be heard, Bruno focused on Woojin’s presentation as if he was being sucked in.

After about five minutes, the introduction to the presentation was finished.

“That’s how we were able to design this type of facade, and we thought carefully about designing it to be the most beautiful building possible within this design.”

“It has become an organic form of appearance that may be somewhat unconventional, but we have designed it so that all the values that a nursing home should have can be contained as beautifully as possible.”

Woojin’s words flowed like water.

At the same time, a large drawing appeared on the screen.

It was a floor plan showing the entire first floor of the nursing home building designed by Woojin’s team.

Click-

Woojin, who pointed at it with a laser pointer, pressed the button once more, and numerous dotted and solid lines appeared on the drawing in sequence.

At first glance, it looks very complicated, but they were ultimately drawing a single large flow.

Bruno’s two pupils, who had been staring at it for a while, gradually began to expand.

‘Could it be that they are expressing the traffic line?’

End of February.

That is, after the ‘Night of Design’ that took place during O.T.

It was the first time that ‘it’ had appeared before Woojin’s eyes.

“Hey, Woojin. Why do you suddenly have a blank expression while working?”

Countless thin and thick golden lines.

A special drawing printed in gold, visible only to Woojin’s eyes.

No, rather than a drawing, it was like a magic key that showed hidden spaces.

If the ‘Golden Print’ that Woojin saw at the Night of Design was a hint showing the optimal spatial arrangement solution.

The second ‘Golden Print’ that appeared before Woojin’s eyes this time was showing the optimal traffic line within the roughly designed sections.

Scritch scritch-

Every time Woojin erased the thick line he had drawn as the outer wall and revised its outline, the golden wave continued to show different shapes.

It reflects the flow of the user’s traffic line, which is bound to change depending on the structure, and shows it in front of your eyes.

Of course, Woojin didn’t immediately know from the beginning that these golden lines meant traffic lines.

Woojin thought about this phenomenon for almost an hour, and only then was he able to realize it.

That what the Golden Print was trying to show him this time was the optimal traffic line structure.

‘What are the conditions for the Golden Print to appear?’

The Golden Print is a kind of ‘miracle’ for Woojin.

It doesn’t take responsibility for all designs and plans, but it was true that it raised the limit of the design he could do by more than one level.

But Woojin didn’t want to rely on this phenomenon, the cause of which he didn’t even know.

So he wanted to make this miracle his own, thinking that this was the last time.

‘Being able to see the traffic line in real time according to the change in structure is…….’

Woojin copied the traffic line shown by the Golden Print onto the drawing he had drawn.

When it was all drawn, he drew a new structure drawing that had changed a little, and then drew the lines of the Golden Print that had changed accordingly.

‘The shape must be such that these golden lines do not collide with each other as much as possible and flow organically.’

The optimal traffic line should be as short and concise as possible and should have its own independence.

Therefore, Woojin frantically repeated drawing and discarding new drawings until the golden line drew such an ideal picture.

Woojin stayed up all night drawing drawings that day.

‘Yes. This was the answer. I was only thinking about the space arrangement between floors, and I was missing one important part.’

When the morning sun was shining through the studio window.

In the end, Woojin was able to produce a satisfactory drawing.

Using the Golden Print, which shows the results, he found the answer: ‘the best spatial structure that can induce the optimal traffic line’.

When Woojin’s last drawing was completed, the Golden Print, which had been shining in the air, emitted an even brighter golden light and landed on the drawing.

And as if it were seeping into Woojin’s drawing, it was gently sucked in along the line Woojin had drawn.

Woojin couldn’t help but be surprised at the sight.

This was a phenomenon that he had not seen when he faced the Golden Print at the Night of Design.

‘Could it be that……. At that time, I couldn’t draw out the optimal space that the Golden Print intended?’

Unless there is some kind of manual for this Golden Print, it is impossible to know the exact cause of this phenomenon.

But Woojin was feeling it intuitively.

That his thought was correct.

Drrr-

Jaden was snoring in the seat across from Woojin, but Woojin had no intention of finishing his work here.

He was able to derive an unexpected answer thanks to the Golden Print, but in Woojin’s opinion, it was just cheating using the power of a miracle.

If he was satisfied and finished here, this drawing could never be Woojin’s.

‘The order has been reversed a bit……. Now I have to analyze it in reverse.’

With the answer he found, he traces back and analyzes the design process of the drawing in reverse.

Through this work, Woojin began to make the drawing he could glimpse through the Golden Print his own.

In the process, he was able to gain a new understanding of floor plan design.

Zzzzzing-!

Woojin, who turned the screen of the screen continuously, looked around the audience and opened his mouth again with a confident voice.

“The drawings I just showed you are works that diagrammatically depict the flow of traffic lines according to changes in structure.”

Woojin’s voice echoed, and the expressions of the people watching were varied.

Some people knew from the beginning that this picture represented the user’s traffic line, but there were far more people who didn’t.

“We have found the optimal design that can have the most concise and independent traffic line through numerous trials and errors…….”

Click-

The screen moved to the next screen again, and on it was a 3D model that showed the inside of the building.

An isometric view that reveals all the internal structures of the building designed by Woojin’s team at a glance.

“This ISO contains that design.”

Woojin began to explain one by one why those spaces were structured in this way, and the audience focused on Woojin’s presentation as if they didn’t want to miss any of the stories.

When all the explanations were finished.

Clap- clap clap-

Starting with the small applause that began to echo from somewhere.

Sincere applause began to spread throughout the presentation hall.

But Woojin still had one more story to tell.

Golden Print