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MongYuDoWonDo, rendering view
image courtesy of USD cooperation, 2014

夢遊桃源圖(Mongyudowondo)- Imagination City suggests an alternative model for a fundamental of future architecture. Along with the theme of 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, FUNDAMENTAL, we question on the fundamental of the alternative architecture model for the future. Fundamental architecture is not a simple physical entity, but an accumulation of social, historical, cultural, and psychological elements. A city is an interlinked system within which keeps a huge history and a complex network. Thereby architecture genuinely needs to respond to this system. In this respect, we put the focus on the spiritual ways that cities and cultures have been constructed rather than physical properties. 

Yoon Gyoo Jang, a representative of USD Architects Cooperation starts from reinventing the historical classic in order to configure the fundamental architecture.

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MongYuDoWonDo | 몽유도원도 [ 夢遊桃源圖 ], Korean painting, An Gyeon(安堅), 1447

The initial idea of the imagination city was triggered by a same titled oriental painting, MongYuDoWonDo <夢遊桃源圖> from the Joseon Dynasty, in 1447. Prince Anpyeong told Angyeon(安堅), the painter about his dream and requested to paint a picture based on it. He depicted a bizarre rock formation which is the real landscape on the left part of the painting and drew a peaceful utopia world with cherry blossom on the right side. It is interesting that the painter captured two different worlds that will never get along within one picture. Therefore the dichotomy does not exist in this mysteriously harmonious world. Inspired by this painting, Yoon Gyoo Jang creates an imaginatively natural form to suggest a human being’s future livelihood.

MongYuDoWonDo, perspective view of the virtual model 
image courtesy of USD cooperation, 2014

This concept ended up as a real 3-dimensional model in a fluid shape. It tries to express the abstraction of the 15th century's oriental landscape painting that captures the real world and the utopian world harmoniously. 
This curvy model consists of multiple overlapping layers. Those layers create intersectional depth to the model, and make interesting spaces within the model. In this way, the whole structure can keep multiple spaces within itself, and it somehow evokes organic atmosphere.
It is a single volude yet at the same time, an assemble of diverse sections that are connected to each other. It is an associated system rather than a single structure. Ultimately, this imaginative model aims to contstruct new logics that will gear up new dimension of dynamism.

MongYuDoWonDo, rendering image of the model 
image courtesy of USD cooperation, 2014

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MongYuDoWonDo, rmaking process, conceptual drwaoing, installatiion plans

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