Architect and Founder of Mass Studies
Minsuk Cho, Hon. FAIA, founded the Seoul-based firm Mass Studies in 2003. The practice has been committed to advancing architectural discourse through socio-cultural and urban research. Cho operates at the intersection of South Korea’s post-20th-century hyper-urbanization and its byproducts as divergent spatial conditions, spanning from innovative urban typologies to sensitive natural site interventions, exploring how architecture can respond to both immediate contextual demands and broader global conditions. Rather than imposing predetermined solutions, his practice finds opportunities through discovery and invention. Each project contributes to an expanding network where insights from one context inform and amplify approaches in others, developing acute awareness of contemporary spatial and temporal frameworks. Beyond his practice, Cho co-curated the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale and was appointed commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion’s “Crow’s Eye View: The Korean Peninsula” exhibition at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale (2014), which received the Gold Lion for Best National Participation. In late 2014, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, held its first-ever architecture exhibition, a solo show titled “Before/After: Mass Studies Does Architecture.” Cho was selected as the architect for the Serpentine Pavilion 2024: Archipelagic Void. He is an active lecturer and speaker at symposiums worldwide, and was the Kenzo Tange Visiting Critic in Architecture at Harvard GSD in Spring 2026.
