Sun-Young Rieh

AIA Associate Professor, Dept. of Architecture, University of Seoul, Korea
syrieh@uoscc.uos.ac.kr

Interview.

How did you first develop an interest in architecture?

I have always wanted to be an artist. And my father, who was a mechanical engineer, encouraged me to be an architect.

How supportive was your family of your decision to study architecture?

My father was proud of himself as a mechanical engineer, so he was strongly supportive of my decision to study architecture, which was a closely related field. Moreover, because he knew I tried to be his alumnus, he was absolutely supportive of me, collecting useful information, and scrapping interesting articles about architecture for me.

Did you ever have a mentor in the field who "showed you the ropes"? If so, who was this?

Clare Cooper Marcus, whom I met in U.C. Berkeley when I was a grad there.

To what extent has your [race/gender] helped or hindered your progress toward your career goals?

As a female and ethnically Asian architect, I have been in dual vulnerable positions, where suspicious attention and dubious discredits are likely to be concentrated on me. However, through my experiences, I realized that these differentiating factors in myself could act on me positively. When I obtained outstanding results, more attention had been given to me than other people who had the same outcomes. In my case, after my career had somewhat been developed, the eminence due to my rarity in the field sometimes provided me several good opportunities, and after successfully finishing the project, it could function as a driving force in my career.

If you were not a [women/person of color] how, if at all, do you think your career path in architecture might be any different from what it is today?

I definitely believe that if I were a white male, I would achieve my goal earlier and further. I witnessed several cases that white male made it in their field by getting more opportunities through their firmly established network under this male dominating circumstance. As I have said, I often lost a few good chances because of my ethnical and sexual identity.

Have you found any interesting ways to use your [race/gender] to your advantage?

Korean males have a tendency to feel uncomfortable with refusing women's requests directly. Once I had a project in my mind, I used this practice for my benefit and induced them not to refuse my requests. Then, I conducted the project as a coordinator rather than a leader in order to reduce their negative response in case they did not like to have a female leader in the top position. By "being in charge", I was able to achieve my goal without major difficulties. As a result, I stayed as a key person for quite a long time for the project and could attain many remarkable outcomes.

In order to improve the status of women and people of color in the field, what type of information do we need, or what kinds of issues should we be addressing? What do you see as the critical research questions that can help lead to improvement in the field?

In the field of architecture, many composite forces are functioning together. The currency of capitals, management of organizational systems, power struggles over decision-making, and authority for design criticisms, are manipulated by males. In order to cut the link of collusion between the power group and this biased mechanism, I think reformation of the educational system is requisite. Schools must take actions for training architects and clients with an unprejudiced point of view.

In Korea, the number of female students studying architecture in Universities has shown remarkable increase in recent years. Then, does the number of female architects in the professional field increase at the same time? If so, or if not, what do you think is the main reason of this phenomenon?

In spite of the increase of the female student in architectural field in Universities, the number of actual female architects has not grown as fast as the number of students. The reason is because the working conditions are extremely unfavorable to women in architecture. In order to be a practitioner, quiet a long time is demanded for taking the examination, being trained in the internship program, and building up actual careers. However, the society is not supportive of women at all. In most cases, it is absolutely ignorant of the indispensable welfare system for women to not have programs such as parental leave, childcare, etc. For this reason, though having a quite good educational background, many potential female architects have been forced to leave the field before establishing their careers.

Is there any movement to do research about sexual discrimination in the architectural field proceeding in Korea? If so, how is it going?

About 114 universities (apart from colleges) have architecture departments in Korea. But the number of female professors in this field is below 10. Under this circumstance, this kind of topic is hard to be touched. However, since 2000, 6 female professors including me have had a regular conference to deal with this topic, sympathizing with the necessity of studying the relationship between women and architecture. To the present, our research has been focused on criticizing the sexually discriminative public spaces for women such as restrooms, lounges, etc.

In Korea, the interest in gender issues have been enlarged greatly, but at the same time it is true that the actual difficulties women get to confront in search of their career within the social system are not promoted noticeably. How is the situation in the architectural field?

The Architectural field is one of the most male dominated fields in Korea, as such in America. Due to this conservative atmosphere, it must be harder in my field than others to improve women's situation.

You had a career in America before coming back to Korea for your professorship at University of Seoul. Do you think there is any difference in the degree of sexual discrimination between Korea and America? Do you think any specific Korean situation makes it more severe and harsher than in America?