Sunwoo Kim

Sunwoo completed his undergrad in Seoul, South Korea and moved to the states in 2016 to complete a master’s degree at Yale University. He has interned and worked in offices from 7 to 150 employees and has designed for a diverse scale of projects, ranging from a small wooden pavilion to a 1400-unit apartment complex. He joined the Butler Armsden team in the summer of 2018.

Growing up in a family of architects, Sunwoo was drawn to the field early on. In his hometown city of Seoul he started to observe the contrasting urban fabric between the north and the south, separated by the Han River. The multi-layered tensions between urban forms and different political/economical backgrounds are the most important asset of his architecture as a discipline today.

Sunwoo believes good design is not about making something pretty or beautiful, but is about the careful consideration of the history, political, and economic background of the client, site, and program. He is inspired by Peter Eisenman, whom he learned from at Yale.