The collaborative installation “Urban Volumes” began with a vision of Changhyun Lee, Director of the Seoul Institute. As a result of digitization, numerous books were about to be discarded at the institution–books were about cities, urban planning, and the development of Seoul, South Korea’s capital. Mr. Lee thus commissioned three artists to conceive of an installation to be exhibited at the Seoul Institute’s gallery space that would give new life to these books.

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The first step of creating the floor piece involved cutting the books’ rectangular shape into hexagons–a geometry that has a greater number of sides to connect and therefore yields more options of dynamic compositions. Furthermore, a hexagon can be formed by two people holding hands with their arms outstretched, when viewed from above. This suggests a shape that is on the whole more welcoming and inclusive, the ideal aim of any city. Through their association with beehives, hexagons also imply an organic sense of community.

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Fifty hexagon-shaped book covers were then "woven" by brass rods and wires to form a rug, by a painstaking and lengthy process not unlike traditional rug making. These covers were then folded completely in to a pillar-like object that is a “book” at the same time. 

The installation’s chair, stools and planters were created by collaborators Jongku Kim and Oksang Lim.