Seoul-based architect Jong Soung Kimm’s roots are in Korea, but his formative years were spent in Chicago–as a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology and later in the office of Mies van der Rohe. From 1961 to 1972–Mies’s final and most prolific years–Kimm worked on iconic projects like the older architect’s last commissions, the meticulously crafted Brown Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Toronto-Dominion Centre. In 1978, Kimm returned to Seoul, opening his own architectural design consultancy, SAC International. For the past 40 years, Kimm’s buildings–such as the Weightlifting Gymnasium for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the Woo Yang Museum of Contemporary Art in Kyongju–have evinced both an admiration for Mies and a Korean sensibility.
In addition, Kimm’s passion extends to the Romanesque architecture of the European Middle Ages. Fascinated by the architectural space and the construction of these buildings, he visited and photographed since 2002 the most outstanding Romanesque churches and monasteries.