»Raw space for art!« that is what we suggest to the city council of daegu and the daegu fine arts association, who invited us to an international symposium, about the transformation of the 60.000 qm tabacco-factory »kt&g« into a cultural area. The massive building, near daegu station and near the historical city center, which is  a monumental witness of the korean industrial age and empty for several years, could be a corner-stone for the revitalisation of the whole area. > map

It could be a really symbiotic process, a »long-term interaction between different biological species« to start  using the building as factory for creative & cultural industries >from industrial production to cultural production. The building will survive, the artists will have space for their experimental art production and the neighbours will have vital partner, which effect on the urban space and the quality of the city.

allowing tobacco studios as well as its neighbourhood to develop in a symbiotic process to strengthen not only its identity as a space for art-production, but also the identity of colourful daegu.

coming to daegu 4 months ago, i was totally lost in this city. i had the impression, i will never be able to orientate in this city.  only the green hills seemed to me something  like an orientation mark., maybe one of the most characterizing points, that korean cities don’t seem to have no monumets, no palaces, churches, industrial complexes, …, no landmarks for orientation. we stubled onto this building in september, and for me it was the first building in daegu with real identity. a building like a monument, a massive landmark on the edge of the historical city of impressingly big scale, witness of  korean industrial age, of the enormous economic growing of this country. i can read in this building some part of koreas history, without knowing the language, without studying books.

presented at
international forum on transforming old tobacco factory to cultural area
2011.12.21
daegu gyeong-buk design center
daegu, republic of korea