Ryu Choon-soo

Ryu Choon-soo is a prominent South Korean architect, educator, and artist. He worked under Kim Swoo-Geun who was a pioneer of Korean modern architecture. He designed many projects both in South Korea and abroad, including the Seoul World Cup Stadium and the 868 Towers Apartments in Haikou. Currently, he is the CEO at Beyond Space architect associates.

Ryu Choon-su was born on November 18, 1946, in Bonghwa in North Gyeongsang province, South Korea. He graduated from Daegu High School in 1964 and majored in architecture in Hanyang University in 1970. After he graduated, he worked at General Architect Associates and Chonghap Architect Associates until 1974, and worked as the director of Space Group of Korea, which was established by Kim Swoo-geun. While working and learning under Kim Swoo-Geun, he also worked as a lecturer in the Architecture department of Hanyang University. Until 1986, he studied landscape architecture for a master's degree at the graduate school of environmental studies at Seoul National University. In 1986, he was one of the members who established Beyond Space Group, for which currently he is CEO. In 1990, he was appointed a board member of the Korean Institute of Architects, and in 1994, he was appointed as a National plan-check Committee Member in the Ministry of Construction of South Korea. In 2005, he became an expert advisor to the Cultural Properties Committee, and from 2008 to 2010, he served as member of the Presidential Commission on Architecture Policy under the regime of President Lee Myung-bak, the 10th president of South Korea.

Choon-Soo Ryu is known as world class architect with oriental sensitivity and western rationality. His working style is somewhat unusual. Young architects concentrate in analytical criteria, whereas he approaches in intuitive and integrated way of design. His design approach of integrating rational thinking and formative solution is often referred as oriental approach. He does every work from initial sketch to final design. As a result, his architectural insights and scopes are very wide, that his projects include small residential buildings, subway station, major sports facilities, and skyscrapers. In his works, both orientalism and modernism coexists. The only reason, that both tradition and high-tech exist in his works, is mutual function of two factors through integration. His balance of oriental sensitivity and western rationality is well shown in 868 Towers in China and Seoul World Cup Stadium.

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