Minji Han
University of Auckland
Following the completion of the recent mid year reviews at the University of Auckland, many students are successfully honing in on the real ‘essence’ of their theses and getting stuck into their production and process of work. One of these students is Minji Han, furniture extraordinaire and eternal workshop occupant who is exploring concepts concerning the occupation of small spaces, the buried and the underground in the form of a Korean cemetery within Auckland City, addressing issues of identity and confinement.
SANNZ: What are you looking at in your thesis?
MINJI: My thesis really began when I started watching an episode from the TV show Black Mirror [White Christmas], where a man is imprisoned in a confinement cell but it wasn’t physical, it was a figment of memory, in the future. So that got me initially interested in memory, and how you can make spaces in your head using memory, which followed into looking at confinement cells in general. Then I studied a documentary called ‘Herman’s House’ which described a man who had been in solitary confinement for four years and then explained what his dream house would be. Just hearing what he made from his mind, his idea of what a house is, was so interesting because what he designed was in fact a prison cell - the exact copy of what he was living in.
SANNZ: Have you touched on these topics before, and is this a general theme in your work?
MINJI: I’ve always been interested in the human rights of prisoners and what happens to them when they’re confined for 23 hours a day. It’s not good for anyone to be in that kind of environment because they’re supposed to be interacting with people. I am really interested in how humans interact in small spaces. How small is too small?
SANNZ: With all of these ideas and research, what has your approach been to making a thesis?
MINJI: I try to draw, a lot. For me I start with drawing and making models, and that’s the only way I’ve been able to progress throughout my time in university.
SANNZ: Tell me about your supervisor and why you chose to work with them?
MINJI: My supervisor is Michael O’Sullivan, who I worked with in third year. And I knew that he understood how I work and the expectation he had in terms of using the workshop as opposed to the computer. He’s very hands on, and in his paper I learnt that I am very hands on as well. So when it came to this year I just thought that naturally it was the right fit.
SANNZ: I know that you have traveled this year, can you tell us how your travels have impacted the role of identity in your work?
MINJI: I went to Korea, which is where my parents are from. In a way it was an opportunity to take a break from my thesis, but when I came back from Korea I realised what I saw on the trip was linked to what I had produced before I left, which was a series of iterations of the cells in watercolour. During the trip I visited my great-grandparents grave at the local cemetery, and while I was there, I didn’t think it had anything to do with my thesis. But afterwards, I looked over my photos and realised there is a definite link with the ideas of the prison and the buried, the underground.
SANNZ: And how has the cemetery of your great grandparents come into your work now?
MINJI: I’m currently looking at the idea of building a cemetery in the centre of Auckland City, combining the Korean culture. Peter Wood was one of our critics last week and he advised me to ‘just be crazy and design just for Korean people,’ but I’m not entirely sure yet, I’m still playing around with different ideas.
SANNZ: Around the studio everyone admires your beautifully made chair, would you be able to tell us more about that?
MINJI: I have actually put my own story to it, but Michael wanted all of us to design four chairs each for the critics to sit on. So it’s like an arena where these critics are forced to sit down and listen. For me, it was playing on the idea of control and confinement as these chairs I’m designing are to my own body measurements. For my comfort rather than their comfort. It’s influenced by Korean vernacular architecture. It has no visible screws and the structural support comes mostly from the joinery. And I’m also playing with the idea that it is a Korean influenced design but the material is Kauri, which is a NZ material. I guess the chair is like me, Korean but born here, somewhere in-between.
SANNZ: What do you listen to when you do architectural work?
MINJI: I actually listen to podcasts, I love podcasts. Recently I listened to ‘S Town,’ it’s amazing! I’d tell you what it is about but I don’t want to ruin it for you, you have to listen to it!
SANNZ: What has been a design precedent for you?
MINJI: George Nakashima, he’s a Japanese furniture designer. I wish he was Korean so I could integrate his identity into my work!
SANNZ: What is it about the cemetery that you want to challenge or showcase?
MINJI: The whole idea of a picnic where we don’t consider the cemetery as an uncomfortable place. It’s just a location where you’re having a daily hang out, at this site, and it’s fine. Your enjoyment at the grave is making the dead happy. You don’t have to be so down.
SANNZ: Do you work whilst studying? How do make a good life balance?
MINJI: I work in a furniture store in the weekends. They do Kauri and Rimu Furniture so that’s where I got my materials from. Sometimes it can be annoying because the weekends are when you want to take a full day to work on your design, but in the overall scheme of things it works out just fine.
SANNZ: How you think your skills have developed over your years in architecture?
MINJI: Sometimes I don’t realise that I’ve picked up any skills until I look at what I produced in first year. You gain skills without even knowing!
