JIYONG JEON | PRISON BREAKER

jiyongjeon.com@gmail.com 
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RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Inter-scale Relations and Phygital Space
  • Urban Intelligence and Civic Technology
  • Speculative Prototyping and Design Invention


I’m Jiyong, a researcher and architectural designer exploring how technology reshapes the rules of cities.

Trained at Seoul National University and Columbia GSAPP, I study how digital infrastructures, data, and urban systems interact across scales—from buildings to platforms. My work examines how computation can serve not efficiency, but imagination and justice in the built environment.

Currently, I teach at Ajou University and work as a Senior Researcher at Haenglim Architects & Engineers, leading projects that integrate AI-driven design, urban research, and emerging technologies. My research and installations have been featured in the Venice and Seoul Biennales, where I explore phygital spaces—hybrid environments that blur the boundaries between the physical and the digital.

My current research interests include Urban Intelligence and Civic Technology, and Speculative Prototyping and Design Invention—examining how cities can evolve as open, participatory systems through computational tools and collective imagination.

At the core of my inquiry is the question of scale: how small architectural interventions can expand through networks and institutions to generate urban impact, while larger systems absorb and rewrite local behaviors and forms. This reciprocal dynamic between the micro and macro informs my pursuit of new urban rules—dynamic, democratic, and intelligent systems that enable citizens to co-author the cities they inhabit.

EDUCATION

Columbia University GSAPP | Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design Seoul National University DAAE | Bachelor of Architecture

WORK EXPERIENCE

Adjunct Professor – Graduate Architectural Design Studio | Ajou University | 2025-Present
Technical Researcher & Architectural Designer | Haenglim Architects & Engineers | 2022-Present
Urban Researcher | Taejae Research Foundation | 2023-2024
Design Assistant | Vo Trong Nghia Architects | 2019-2020
Design Assistant | Shigeru Ban Architects | 2019
Design Intern | Mass Studies | 2017

AWARDS & HONORS

Seoul Biennale Award (2 teams selected from 66) | Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2025 Invited Exhibitor | 2025 La Biennale Di Venezia, 19th International Architecture Exhibition
Minister’s Award (Grand Prize) | Digital Architecture 2023 Honorable Mention | Nodeul Island Idea Competition Finalist | IKEA SPACE 10 AI Design Competition
3rd Prize | Robust Compact City Research Competition
Representative Exhibitor | Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2023   3rd Place | NFA Salon d’Art XR Competition
Best Fellowship | Young Architects Fellowship 2021 ‘Atlas of Dust’ Research Stipend | Columbia GSAPP Selected Finalist | Columbia GSAPP Pavilion Charrette Silver Prize | Seoul Biennale Photo Competition 2019 Recipient | ‘Architectural Design Human Resource Development Project’ Fellowship 1st Place Thesis Award | Seoul National University Seoul Regional Correctional Service Commissioner’s Prize | Correctional Institution Competition Winner | Moran Folly 2016 International Competition Inchoon Prize | Seoul National University Merit-based Scholarship | Seoul National University
EXHIBITION

2025_Radically More Human, Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism 2025
2025_Pyro-Politics Realism, curated by  Yoon Taegyun Einox
2025_Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, 19th International Architecture Exhibition
2024_Hyper Super X-large... Boom!, Forking Room 2023_Seoul 100-year Masterplan, Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism 2023 2023_Mixed Spectrum, Medium New Media Group Exhibition
2023_Let’s Noduel @Seoul City Hall
2022_Daring or Delusional, Indepth 2019_Finding Seoul, Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism 2017_Solar Decathlon China 2017_Peaceful Dynamic, Moran Folly 2016 Exhibition 2014_Paper Structure, SNU Social Responsibility Program 2014_Euljiro + Underground, Seoul Architecture Festival
PUBLICATION & FEATURE

2025_Review of Architecture and Building Science vol.69, no.11
2025_Biennale Architettura 2025: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. Silvana Editoriale
2025_Medium: Contenizatio of Architecture, ARCHIZINES FAIR 2025 (Centre for Co-Architecture Kyoto)
2025_Creative Pragmatics, Springer
2024_K-facade Design System, 14th International Symposium on Architectural Interchanges in Asia (14th ISAIA)
2024_The 4th SBAU 2023: Land Architecture Land Urbanism, Ahngraphic
2024_Indepth Seoul, Bamdoo Press 2024_Robust Compact City Future Research, SNU DAAE 2023_Robust Compact City Research, SNU DAAE 2021_Abstract 2021, Columbia GSAPP 2021_Young Architect Fellowship, Korean Institute of Architecture 2021_Design Studio Vol.2: Intelligent Control, RIBA Publishing
2019_Re-Defining the Public, SNU DAAE
2016_Moran Folly, Moran Art Museum 2014_SAF Euljiro + Underground, Seoul Architecture Festival
2014-2019_Seoul National University Architectural Review, SNU DAAE

LEADERSHIP

2024_Co-founder | Omnivore Architect 2022–2025_Operation Team | Medium, New Media Group @Hongik University
2021_Committee | Korean Institute of Computation, Design, and Technology (KICDT)

OTHERS

2025_Speaker, Emotional City: SBAU 2025 Opening Forum @Seoul City Hall, Seoul
2024_Lecturer, Introduction to AI Architecture, HU 2024 @Haenglim
2024_Speaker, Exogamy: Architecture and Technology @DMP Architects 2024_Open Call Participant, “Scent Memories,” Odorama Cities (Korean Pavilion), La Biennale di Venezia 2024
2024_Guest Critic, Undergraduate Design Studio @Seoul National University of Science and Technology 2023_Guest Critic, Graduate Design Studio @Ajou University 2023_Speaker, Message from the Ancestral Rites Table, Young Architects Talk @Seoul City Hall 2023_Invited Participant, Tabula Urbaine @Danish Association of Architects 2021_Architectural Critic, Indepth @Seoul National University 2019_Disaster Relief, Typhoon Hagibis, Voluntary Architects’ Network (Shigeru Ban Architect) 2017_Interviewer, Behind Buildings by Rafael Moneo @SNU DAAE
JIYONG JEON

Algorithm | Existence | Speculative Design | Event | Computational Design | Freedom | Critical Thinking | Exogamy | Body Hacking | Illusion of Knowledge | Skepticism | Heterotopia | Sublime | Materiality | Atmosphere | Post-humanism | Technology | Futurism | AI | World-view | Cinematic Architecture | Mutant | Inforg | InFORMation | Infosphere | Estrangement | Fields Theory | Game | Originality | Plagiarism | Identity | Player | Model | Data | Invention | Virtuality | Cyberspace | Value | Robotics | Tragic Beauty | Affordance | Information Modeling | Fiction | Arsonism |   
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