Korean Diaspora Architects
한국계 디아스포라 건축가
Architects of Korean origin who built their careers abroad and returned to leave a footprint at home. Itami Jun (born Yoo Dong-ryong in Tokyo to Korean parents) kept his Korean nationality his entire life while practicing as a Japanese architect — and concentrated his most personal work on Jeju Island, where his Pinx Biotopia museums and Bangju Church draw on Korean vernacular forms. A growing category as more diaspora architects build in Korea — to be expanded in future versions.
The chain
Korean-Japanese architect, born Yoo Dong-ryong in Tokyo to Korean parents. He kept his Korean nationality his entire life, working under the Japanese pen name 'Itami Jun' (after Itami airport). His most prolific Korean works are on Jeju Island — the Pinx Biotopia complex (Podo Hotel and the Water/Wind/Stone/Two-Hands museums) and Bangju Church — where he developed an idiom of curved roofs, weathered metals, and earthy textures rooted in Korean vernacular.
Visit on this lineage
Podo Hotel
(포도호텔)by Itami Jun (유동룡 (이타미 준))· 2001· 제주 서귀포시Itami Jun's most iconic Korean work and a 26-suite boutique hotel inside the Pinx golf and resort complex. The undulating roof — clusters of low domes — abstracts the lines of a bunch of grapes (podo) and the stone walls of Jeju's traditional villages. Quiet earth tones, low eaves, and Jeju basalt make it an architectural landmark stop on the island.
Must-seeopen to publicWater, Wind, Stone Museum (Soomoot)
(수·풍·석 미술관 (수풍석 뮤지엄))by Itami Jun (유동룡 (이타미 준))· 2006· 제주 서귀포시Three small pavilions at Pinx Biotopia, each devoted to a single element of Jeju: the Water Pavilion is a roofless concrete box with an oval skylight reflected in a square pool, the Wind Pavilion is a perforated wooden enclosure that turns the breeze into sound, and the Stone Pavilion is a low corten-steel chamber for a single basalt boulder. Tour by reservation only.
Must-seeopen to publicTwo Hands Museum (Duson)
(두손미술관)by Itami Jun (유동룡 (이타미 준))· 2009· 제주 서귀포시A pair of inclined concrete walls meeting at the apex like clasped hands in prayer, oriented toward Mt. Sanbang. Itami Jun's late-career addition to the Pinx Biotopia art-museum constellation, recognized in part for the 2010 Murano Togo Prize. Quietly contemplative — the silhouette is the entire building.
Notableopen to publicBangju Church (Church of Sky)
(방주교회)by Itami Jun (유동룡 (이타미 준))· 2009· 제주 서귀포시Itami Jun's last completed work — a small church that resembles Noah's Ark resting on a shallow reflecting pond. Zinc roof tiles fragmented like fish scales catch sunlight from every angle, and a sharp prow points to the sky from the front while the sides settle into the landscape. A pilgrimage stop for visiting Catholics and architects alike — particularly resonant in a country preparing for World Youth Day 2027.
Must-seeopen to public