This portfolio, titled Infrastructural Poetics, approaches architecture as a medium of sensation and symbolism beyond structure or function. It interprets infrastructure as poetic, exploring rhythm and atmosphere through repetition, material transformation, and generative geometry. Each project emerges at the intersections of art and engineering, memory and ecology, the digital and the hand drawn, developing a layered architectural language shaped by experimentation, iteration, and coexistence.
Spring 2025, Pratt Institute
Academic, Collaborative Work, Partner: Jonathan Lee
Professor: Fabian Llounch
Automatic Robotic System + Billion Oyster Project
Location: Brooklyn Army Terminal, Brooklyn, New York
Software: Rhino + Vray + Adobe Suite
Deep Sea Nautilus Diagrams showing external shell and internal chambered anatomy
How should architecture be designed for new oyster farming infrastructure?
This project encompasses infrastructure for automated oyster farming, reef production and maintenance, as well as public programs for education. Based on biological metaphors, we approached the design with a systems-thinking mindset rooted in scalable and selfsustaining biological processes.
Functioning as a local landmark, the building operates like a living organism—grafted onto existing structures and adapting to its surrounding environment.
3/16”=1’-0” Physical Model
Airbrushed PLA, UV Resin, PVC, Cast Acrylic, Plywood, Framing Lumber, HDU, 25” x 74” x 50”
Selected for 2025 Pratt Show Archived at Pratt Institute School of Architecture
Sea Level Mapping - Global
Sea Level Mapping - Site
This project focuses on oyster cultivation as a means of water purification. Research at both local and global scales shows that climate change and sea level rise are driving marine pollution. Building on the Billion Oyster Project, the site is proposed as a testing ground for an automated, globally adaptable purification system.
ADDED AQUA ROBOTICS PROGRAM
GIVEN
EARLY ED. ROBOTICS PROG. VENTURE CAPITAL BILLION OYSTER PROJECT
stack-wrap-reflect program-transparency fracture-layering circulation-site
rebuild-fill-subtract bind-tear scars-infill
for two generations
operation-circulation
stack-wrap-pierce growth-interiority interiority-wrapping mass-program-in&out
pierce-protrude prosthestic-lift extend-mass program-circulation
stack-pierce-oblique intrude-disrupt mass-adjacency mass-interiority-program
high tide 2020s
high tide 2100
future flood plain 2100
future flood plain 2020s
existing - significant
design language - detail
program - circulation -section
skin - massing
The taxonomy diagram, integrated with the bug models, illustrates the flow of thought from site, building, and program research to the identification of issues, potentials, and design solutions. On the left, the 24 bug models represent iterations of program, building conditions, and design ideas, which converge into a cohesive narrative. This narrative unfolds into program organization, design language, and the relationship between people and infrastructure, ultimately extending beyond function and renovation toward metaphor, symbolism, and the role of the building as a landmark.
layering - cutting
program arrangement
human - robotics
Fabrication
1. 2.
5. 6. Shell Conveyer Shell Grinding Concrete Batching & Printing Oyster Reef Propagating Reef Maturation Chamber Robotic Reef Application
Space
Isolated Water Testing Deep Water Testing Conveyer Pipe
Oyster Shell Grinding Oyster Reef Fabricating Oyster Reef Propagating Storage / Water Pump
Isolated
Deep
Conveying
Community Steps
Observatory Deck
Lounge
Cafe
Office
Open Education Space
The intersection of fabrication technologies, aquarobotic systems, and human-centered spaces generates a new kind of spatial experience distinct from conventional design approaches.
At these points of convergence, automated systems and human environments are intricately interwoven, producing complex spaces where technological precision and sensory engagement coexist.
Viewing Steps
Intersecting Space
Sectional Physical Model, 3/16”=1’-0”
Air brushed PLA, UV Resin, PVC, Cast Acrylic, Plywood, Framing Lumber, HDU, 25” x 74” x 50”
Selected for 2025 Pratt Show
Archived at Pratt Institute School of Architecture
Water Elevation
The building is conceived as a single organism composed of multiple “organs” where the expandable oyster-farming automation system intersects with public programs. Within these organs, the moving objects interact and form relationships. The three model images on the upper left illustrate how people experience the building as part of this flowing system, and how new organs connect to the existing structure and evolve into design.
Summer 2025, Pratt Institute
Academic, Individual Work
Professor: Erich Schoenenberger, Alex Tahinos
Program: Hydro-Infrastructure, Mobility Network, Community Center
Location: Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico
Software: Rhino + Enscape, D5 + Adobe Suite
This project is located near the Norte Stadium in Mexico City and speculates on the city’s future conditions before and after large-scale events such as the upcoming World Cup. It addresses the paradoxical challenges of water scarcity and flooding that affect the city, reconnects pedestrian networks fragmented by road infrastructure, and provides new public space. More importantly, through a speculative lens, the project extends beyond problem-solving to propose an experimental framework that reimagines how infrastructure and urban life can generate new possibilities for community activation and resilience.
The design begins by identifying and connecting multiple potential spots around the site. Public programs, positioned alongside an activated pedestrian network, transform these points into key urban nodes. At the same time, rainwater collected from the building’s surfaces and a flood-responsive plaza serve as passive strategies to address both water scarcity and flooding.
Base on Function as footbridge, Roof, Program, Rain Harvesting
Through a formal study exploring forms suitable for a system that simultaneously addresses pedestrian networks and water collection and storage programs, the design has evolved into a form that not only meets these requirements but also enables the system to operate effectively.
Axonometric Building Section Rhino, Enscape
The floor plan not only performs the system of water collection, filtration, storage, and distribution but is also designed to adapt to both everyday conditions and large-scale events such as the World Cup, where massive crowds gather and disperse. The second floor primarily functions as a circulation level; on ordinary days, it accommodates a vendor market and provides space for the local community to stroll and gather. During events, however, all spaces can be cleared to accommodate large flows of people.
Similar to the second floor, the ground floor is developed not only to operate the rain harvesting system but also to adapt to conditions before and after flooding. During floods, the plaza functions as a pond that retains water; in everyday situations, it becomes a public park; and during events, it transforms into a gathering space for people. In the diagram, the contrasting shading illustrates the difference in occupancy density between event periods and ordinary days.
The ground space condition diagram illustrates a porous form carved by human movement, revealing unique spatial qualities shaped through circulation. Unlike the uncomfortable underpasses of conventional footbridges, this serves as a strong example of how pedestrian infrastructure can be integrated with architecture to function more effectively.
How can we experience architecture that is integrated with infrastructure? From its earliest planning stages, this project has focused on the flows of water and people. Just as water is collected, filtered, stored, and redistributed through a sequence of processes, the movement of people is aligned with this sequence, allowing them to directly experience each stage of rain harvesting within the building. Through this, residents can transform negative associations with water into new experiences, while the building itself functions as both a community hub and a device for shifting perception.
Small
Vendor Market & Pedestrian Network Public Park
Fall 2024, Pratt Institute
Academic, Individual Work
Professor: Alex Tahinos
Program: Housing, Public Park + CO2 Capturing
Location: 395 Broome St, New York
Software: Rhino + Enscape + Adobe Suite
Arial
This project explores the integration of CO₂-capturing technology with urban elements such as small parks in New York City. Its goal is to merge futuristic technology with familiar spaces, creating a new architectural experience where past and future intersect. Through this process, the project investigates how emerging technologies can organically embed themselves within the urban environment.
In the initial stage, the project analyzed the functional aspects of CO₂ capturing and processing devices and explored their potential to merge seamlessly with architectural forms. Through 3D modeling experiments, elements of urban parks—such as benches, streetlights, plantings, and paving—were sampled and combined with new technological devices in a hybrid modeling process. This experiment went beyond simply visualizing technical performance, aiming instead to explore how urban spaces might acquire new aesthetic and atmospheric qualities in the era of climate change.
Original Model
Among the various hybrid models, objects suitable for residential and public programs were selected. The multi-family housing is composed as if made of modular units, resonating with the logic of windfall. Meanwhile, the park is envisioned not as a standardized or efficiency-driven space, but as a place where people can linger and relax—integrated with CO₂ processing casings. These hybrids embody both functional and sculptural qualities, visualizing how CO₂-capturing technology can naturally permeate the urban context. Renderings of the selected hybrids present concrete spatial images, revealing a new hybrid atmosphere within familiar cityscapes.
01. Whole Parts of Hybrid Objects
02. Details of Hybrids Objects
In the final stage, these hybrid objects were fused with actual architecture. As seen in the contrast between the floor plan and the axonometric building section, CO₂-capturing machines equipped with filters are integrated into residential units, supplying purified air to the interior. At the same time, the filtered air is released into the CO₂ Free Park, where it merges with kinetic devices to generate an entirely new type of park atmosphere. Through this process, people are able to sense, observe, and experience the act of filtration directly.
In the final stage, the project is articulated as a single building operating in dialogue with its context. At the rear of the site, where the balconies of adjacent buildings face inward, the CO₂ Free Park is strategically placed in respect to this condition. The surrounding buildings emphasize a repetitive verticality, which the design both acknowledges and reinterprets. This results in a gradually recessed, cave-like entrance at the front, contrasted by a vastly open public park at the rear. The strong juxtaposition of these elements produces a spatial drama, allowing the building to operate as an architectural form that resonates with its context while offering a new type of public space.
Fall 2024, Pratt Institute
Academic, Individual Work
Professor: Fabian Llonch
Proseminar: Skins
Location: 110 Prince St, New York
Software: Midjourney, Rhino, Enscape, Adobe Suite
Based on images obtained through Midjourney’s blending feature, this project explores the potential of functioning as a skin by extracting forms, separating similar elements, and layering them.
110 Prince St, Soho, Manhattan
With the goal of designing dynamism while respecting the strongly vertical context, the project was gradually developed by varying density, scale, layering, and assembly.
The final façade, shaped through layering and density testing, metaphorically resembles a waterfall. It introduces a pocketpark quality into the city’s vertical monotony, with each layer abstracting elements of flowing water—streams, stones, and mist—turning the skin into both structure and poetic image.
3/16”=1’-0” Study Models
3/16”=1’-0” Physical Model
Spring 2021, PNU
Academic, Individual Work
Professor: Jaehoon Jook
Program: Cultural Complex
Location: Jagalchi Market, Busan, Republic of Korea
Structure: Post-tensioned concrete slab, Tensile membrane
Software: Rhino + Adobe Suite
The first market is created when people gather to buy and sell daily necessities and various items. Over time, buildings are erected and streets become organized, and the variable and temporary characteristics of the market fade away. The physical market becomes standardized and loses its sensitivity. What is the role of architecture in preserving the traditional market and its unique sensibilities? A hint could be found in the objects used in the formation of the first market, such as tents.
After establishing a basic box-shaped volume, each corner is pulled outward to induce a tent-like deformation, generating a tensile spatial condition. This transformation operates as a strategy to shift the initial cubic mass into a more fluid and dynamic form.
The left sectional model serves as a mock-up test to evaluate this concept, incorporating the membrane structure, supporting tension cables, and the human figure within. Through this model, both the spatial tension and the usability of the interior environment are examined simultaneously.
The first market is created when people gather to buy and sell daily necessities and various items. Over time, buildings are erected and streets become organized, and the variable and temporary characteristics of the market fade away. The physical market
Project Contributor(Full Time), Corals Inc
2024. 12 - 2025. 02
Professional, Intern Architect
Program: Villa
Project Type: Renovation
Location: 551 Breezy Hill Rd, Hillsdale, NY
Structure: Timber
Software: CAD, Rhino, Enscape
Internship(Full Time), Busan Architecture
12. 2019 - 02. 2020
Professional, Collaborative Work (Member of 5)
Role: Intern | Massing & Layout Development, Facade Drafting, Case Studies
Program: Childcare Support Center
Project Type: Competition (2nd Prize)
Location: Busan, Republic of Korea
Software: CAD, SketchUp
929 437 7516
gkim32@pratt.edu