Portland architectural firm's S. Korean projects teach lessons on

A Portland architectural firm is getting an education in density thanks to two South Korean projects designed to grow up, not out.

Deca Inc., the Portland firm of husband and wife Sallee Humphrey and David Hyman, has already wrapped design work on the master plan of an 80-student campus planned for 10 acres in Suwon, a city with a metro population upward of 1 million.

Now, the firm is going five stories high with its in-progress design of a 44,000-square-foot high school that'll squeeze onto a 7,200-square-foot site in Taejon, south of Seoul.

The designs of the educational facilities contrast sharply, Hyman said, with those of the United States, where we have schools with acres of asphalt, acres of fields and acres of sprawling buildings.

In the United States, Hyman said, high schools taller than two stories are rare. But in South Korea, such schools aren't the exception but rather the rule. In a nation that fits 45 million people into an area the size of Minnesota, he said, everything is tall.

Land values are expensive, and utilities are so expensive, so there's a much different attitude toward density, Hyman said.

Energy costs in South Korea are skyrocketing, Hyman said, as they are elsewhere. So, although Deca's Suwon design will cost 10 percent to 20 percent more to build when construction begins next year, because it's five stories instead of a sprawling one or two, the district will save $50,000 to $60,000 American dollars a year on heating and electric bills, he said.

Architects working on U.S. projects routinely suggest such energy- saving measures to developers, Hyman said. But in the United States, he said, developers are more concerned with initial costs than longevity, so designs that cost an extra 20 percent to build don't often make it to construction.

Because land is at a premium in South Korea, Hyman said, developers have a different attitude.

We're more of a throwaway culture, whereas in South Korea front- end costs are more highly regarded, he said. We're thinking about how will this go over in a bond measure, and they're thinking about what it'll be 20 to 30 years down the road.

Both projects - Taejon's Christian International School and Suwon's 800-student campus - emphasize sustainability in the same way many Portland high-rises do, Hyman said.

The Taejon high school design plants a play area on the roof with swimming pools and parking lots hidden underground. The Suwon campus will fit elementary, middle and high schools into five stories along with a theater and gymnasium.

The designs, Hyman said, are fitting for the two schools' approaches. Korean education, he said, is taught in the way that American education was taught in the '30s and '40s. It's lecture format, (as opposed to) our format now, where the teacher is a facilitator.

Said Hyman: These are American-style, progressive buildings to fit an American-style, progressive education.

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