Team Vertical Paradox selected for 5th Seoul Biennale with “Our Hagwon”
By Kelly Sheldon
Published March 31, 2025
Announcement of the final 10 selected creators for the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
In the Fall of 2025, the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (SBAU) is set to take place in South Korea. More than 140 creator teams and 1,200 citizen community members participated in a multi-stage open call for projects to be featured at the Biennale. Only ten submissions were ultimately selected, and one of those successful groups goes by the name of Team Vertical Paradox, for their project titled Our Hagwon.
Team Vertical Paradox originated as the Spring 2024 Vertical Paradox Studio at the UB School of Architecture and Planning, led by Jin Young Song, associate professor in the Department of Architecture. The eponymous “vertical paradox” is described by Song as “the interplay between the contradictions of the rapidly evolving nature of commercial programs and the distinct sentiment of Korean communities – shaped by traditional Korean identity, modern technology, and the global influence of European avant-garde.” Western modernity mixes with Eastern tradition and culture to create a hybrid landscape filled with monotonous, yet highly livable, mixed-use, high-rise structures. Specifically, the studio focused on how this paradox is embodied by the manifestation of Hagwons, or “cram schools.”
Hagwons are private educational institutions that prepare Korean students for standardized testing during after-school hours. Eighty percent of Korean students attend Hagwons in an effort to gain an academic advantage over their peers, with nationwide spending on them reaching 26 trillion won ($20 billion) in 2022. The Spring 2024 Vertical Paradox studio specifically focused on the facade design and integration of Hagwons within heterogeneous commercial buildings.
The studio’s collaboration with Professor Soewon Hwang at Chung-Ang University in South Korea helped to deepen UB students’ understanding of local context, with the resulting research contributing to an international symposium hosted by UB in 2024 titled “(Un)Defining Korean Architecture.” Additional partnerships with Pusan National University in Busan and Japan Women’s University in Tokyo were also formed to further bolster these research efforts by offering alternate lenses through which to view similar vertical learning space environments across different cities. Thus, the studio evolved into Team Vertical Paradox, a multi-university research collective dedicated to rethinking educational spaces in dense, commercial urban settings, with the work continuing through this year’s 2025 Vertical Paradox studio led by Gregory Serweta, adjunct instructor in the Department of Architecture at UB.
Staci Tubiolo in the final review of Vertical Paradox Studio. The work was also selected for the ASCA Showcase.
There are natural parallels between the group’s work and the Biennale’s theme of Radically More Human, chosen this year by general director Thomas Heatherwick. The concept stems from Heatherwick’s work over the past two years with the “Humanise” campaign, self-described as “a 10-year global campaign to confront the public health issues caused by boring buildings and inspire the public to demand better.” Song reflected on his interpretation of the intent around this theme, seeing it as “a call to refocus on architecture’s unique contributions to society, particularly based on ‘exteriority,’ the way buildings engage with people in their daily lives through their facades, not just functionally but also emotionally and even ritualistically.”
So, how exactly is that theme reflected in Our Hagwon? Song explained, “Our project examines the Hagwon phenomenon, rooted in commercial buildings that are deeply embedded in everyday urban life – especially impacting parents and students preparing for college entrance exams. Hagwons reflect both the intense social pressures and architecture’s ongoing struggle to meaningfully respond to the city.”
Niyati Kale and Ruchira Sardesai presenting the Hagwon project in their final review
With funding from the SBAU office, Team Vertical Paradox will collaborate with local community members in Seoul and Heatherwick’s office to develop a large-scale installation to illustrate its research outcomes, set to open this summer. Our Hagwon, through various mediums, including scenarios, photos, models, and drawings, will present a variety of creative alternative ways to question the roles and impacts of these spaces. Independently from the Biennale exhibition, Song and Team VP are organizing an international symposium, workshop, and exhibition at Chung-Ang University. Students from four schools will present their research, alongside keynote speakers from an emerging design firm in Korea and an internationally renowned firm in the U.S. As part of the research, Song also organized a national photography competition on Hagwons to explore untold stories, behaviors, and unique experiences of students and parents living around them. The team will incorporate the findings into the symposium. This series of events are intended to serve as a platform for dialogue among not just Biennale attendees (e.g., architects, urban planners, policymakers), but also members of the public, including educators.
Benjamin Reich, from DeSimone Engineering, advising on the wall section details
Song feels that the years of collaboration and established research under the team’s belt were key factors in making this project stand out amid so much competition. “Our team demonstrated readiness by leveraging past and ongoing projects – not only at UB but also across the four other universities over the past two years,” he reflected. “I believe the reviewers recognized both the depth of our proposal and the extensive groundwork already in place, which helped our project stand out.”
Poster advertising the Cram Urbanism and Vertical Learning Space Symposium
Poster inviting participation in the Hagwon Photography Competition
As a multi-year endeavor, the team plans to continue beyond the Biennale with future collaborations planned with policymakers and scholars on education to expand the research into an actionable initiative. When asked about the future, Song offered, “While zoning regulations shape building forms and historic presentation policies establish guidelines for public benefit, spontaneous yet dominant educational spaces, like cram schools, often fall outside these frameworks. The research aims to spark a broader debate on the role of design and necessary regulations and incentives for educational spaces within urban environments.”
In that vein, their next step is to put some new ideas, based on their research, to the test. “The goal is to explore new incentives – such as floor area ration (FAR) or tax benefits – for building owners who adopt measurable design strategies (e.g., green, tall, semi-public spaces) that support educational tenants while providing architectural and social benefits to students, the surrounding community, and future generations.”
Ultimately, Team Vertical Paradox plans to continue expanding on its initial success by bringing this model to more cities worldwide, such as Melbourne, Shanghai, Taipei, Istanbul, and New York. By integrating new and diverse cultural and spatial complexities to the mix, they aim to further enrich this important conversation on the nature of the built environment in education.
Acknowledgment:
The symposium and exhibition are partly funded by the UB Office of International Education with additional generous support from Chung-Ang University. The Vertical Paradox Studio is a result of the UB-DeSimone partnership. DeSimone Consulting Engineering’s Facade Team—Rok Lee, Daniel Chung, Benjamin Reich, and Whitney Boykin—generously provided facade lectures and project consultations to the students.