Chapter 24. Architecture, You Bastard
12:40 p.m. Gwangseong University.
20 minutes before submission.
A black sedan entered through the vehicle gate. When the car that had come into the parking lot stopped its heavy movement, someone got out at a leisurely pace. And as if he had been waiting, the facilities section chief came running.
“President! You’re here.”
He was President Park Changsik of Gwangseong University.
A doctorate in engineering from Gwangseong University, he was the only president who was an alumnus of his own alma mater.
He had been a professor at Gwangseong University, then became head of planning, then dean, and then president, a man like a legend.
“The judging is tomorrow morning, right? Is everything being prepared well?”
“Yes. We are preparing without any issues.”
“…But putting that aside, does someone from the Architects Association really have to come out tomorrow?”
“Huh? That is, since it is a design competition evaluation, it has to be conducted transparently. Well, that too is just formalities. President. You do not need to worry.”
“Formalities? Anyway, people in our country love formalities. Tsk tsk. I’m building my building at my school, and they make it into such a fuss? Anyway.”
After passing through the parking lot and coming up to the university’s main building, he stared intently at the completely empty athletic field.
Then he drew the sports center that Mirim Architecture had planned on that vacant land.
The humiliation of a low-tier reputation that was received because it was old and did not stand out.
Now he was ready to throw it off. Thinking of raising his alma mater’s status into the upper ranks, he smiled in satisfaction.
He looked at his watch, and the submission deadline was already nearing.
‘If we break ground and finish it, it’ll easily take a full year.’
But then.
“Hey! Run, hurry! We’re late. Damn it!”
“Huff! Huff! Yes!”
From the other side, two men could be seen rushing into the main building at full speed.
One was carrying a panel, and the one running behind him was sprinting while hugging a box tightly.
They were Team Leader Mo and Na Geonshin.
President Park Changsik’s bewildered eyes turned toward them.
Four hours earlier.
The moment the people of Division 7 saw the test print of Geonshin’s panel, the sleep flew out of them.
Director Yoo-uk clapped and shouted “Hooray,” and Assistant Manager Soomin’s eyes turned red because the output was far beyond everyone’s expectations.
To think it could be completed at this quality.
Team Leader Mo had kept checking Geonshin’s work process in between, confirming it, and watching the process unfold.
As he saw the design report and aerial views being completed one by one, he gradually stopped looking for outside vendors the way he had been begging earlier.
Even if they had no people and no time, his eyes were still those of a professional.
And to him, no matter how much they tried to find a new vendor in the remaining time and hand work over from scratch, he was convinced they would not be able to catch up to the quality Geonshin had produced over several days.
For now, Team Leader Mo’s bet had succeeded.
But.
‘Ah. This isn’t the time to be spacing out.’
Assistant Manager Soomin and Team Leader Mo immediately checked for typos and whether any information was wrong. Even the time to admire it felt wasteful. The print shop near the company opened at 9. Since it had been closed during Chuseok, they had to go early and wait.
“All right! Geonshin, you burned the CD, right? Let’s go. Director, I’ll contact you around when the binding is done. Then come out front of the print shop.”
Team Leader Mo and Geonshin ran out of the office with their hair still greasy.
When they arrived at the print shop a rushed one hundred meters away, the owner had just arrived and was preparing to open.
“Whew. Boss! Boss, we’re here to print our competition submission. We can do it right away, right?”
“A competition? Then you’ll have a design report binding too, huh? What do we do? Right away will be hard.”
“Hard right away?”
“Because we have to do the backlogged bindings first from Chuseok, and they’re all urgent ones, of course.”
“How long will it take?”
“Your job, Team Leader, I think we can only start in the afternoon.”
“Oh, afternoon!?”
Damn it!
Seeing even the print shop not go their way, Geonshin realized to the very end that this thing called architecture was not easy, always making trouble.
‘Even if I regress, this doesn’t change.’
Just then, a car horn sounded.
“Hey! Get in, hurry!”
At some point, Director Yoo-uk had pulled his car tight to the curb and was waving them over. The only thing they could do now was go quickly to another print shop.
Team Leader Mo and Geonshin got in, and they began to feel tense. If they were even one second late, they would be eliminated.
“How did you know and come right away?”
“Hey. The company is in chaos too. We have to bind, but they said everything we entrusted before Chuseok is piled up first. For now, let’s hurry and go to Chungmuro.”
“Ah, Chungmuro? It should be immediate there.”
Between Chungmuro Station and Euljiro Station was the mecca and holy ground of print shops and binding shops.
The smell of ink was thick, to the point that there was a print shop every other storefront.
Of course, before Geonshin regressed, corporate-style print shops had set up in neighborhoods everywhere as if competing, so there was rarely any need to come all the way to Chungmuro.
But as a student, he used to stop by from time to time to print competition panels.
Director Yoo uk’s car ran like a bullet, and before long, it entered the back alleys of Chungmuro.
In that instant, considering the lack of time, Geonshin thought of a way to get results faster.
“Um, we don’t have time, and there are two CDs, so wouldn’t it be better if Team Leader Mo and I go separately and bind five copies each? I’ll handle the panels too.”
“What? Separately? Ah… you mean bind at different places at the same time.”
At Geonshin’s idea, Director Yoo uk, who was driving, slapped the steering wheel and said.
“Ah! That works. No need to wait at one place. I’ll stop around the middle here, and you two split up and print separately.”
Before the regression, with twenty years of experience, Geonshin had already gone through things like this countless times.
When it was truly urgent, he had even split it across three places at once. Of course, in a normal situation, someone might have thought, ‘How does a college student who has never done real fieldwork know tricks like this?’
But everyone was too rushed to have any room to think about that.
Anyway, the submission time was 1 p.m.
After going around a few print shops each, the two of them barely found places with open capacity and started binding. The judges were four people, but they demanded ten copies.
It was obvious they would just shove them into storage anyway, but…
Because they had to bind ten copies of a thirty-page report and print A0-sized panels on glossy paper and mount them onto foam board, it still took quite a while.
Inside the car, Director Yoo-uk kept smoking while staring only at his watch. It was already 12:30.
Thirty minutes before submission, why did time move so fast today?
“Ha. Seriously, every time I do a design competition like this, my ass is on fire, and if we lose, I’m busy cleaning up shit. I’m never doing this again, I swear.”
From far away, Team Leader Mo could be seen running toward them. Director Yoo-uk hated this kind of tension, but when he saw Team Leader Mo running with the design reports in his arms, he gladly started the car.
“Where’s Geonshin?”
“He hasn’t come yet?”
“There’s only thirty minutes left. It’ll take forty minutes from here.”
“Let’s head toward where Geonshin went. I’ll call him.”
But the moment the car started moving, Geonshin could be seen running toward them from the opposite side. He was running awkwardly, holding a huge panel and the design report in both hands.
“Hey! Geonshin! Here! Come carefully!”
“Director!”
“No, not you, the panel! Watch the panel, you bastard.”
With Geonshin onboard too, Director Yoo-uk’s car began a nonstop sprint down the road.
“Even if the cops chase us, we’re not stopping until Gwangseong University! Hold on tight!”
Division 7 was desperate today. Maybe because of that, for the first time in a while they became one heart, praying they would arrive on time.
Of course, in the middle,
“Director! Turn left here. We have to get on the inner ring road.”
“What are you talking about! I’ve driven thirty years without an accident. Going toward Dongdaemun is faster!”
As always, Team Leader Mo and Director Yoo-uk bickered, though.
“Quick! Get out and run! Three minutes left!”
Thanks to Director Yoo uk’s full-throttle sprint, Team Leader Mo and Geonshin arrived at Gwangseong University and immediately started running like mad with the submissions. Cutting across the athletic field and reaching the main building, they went inside to find the facilities department. Luckily, since the Chuseok holiday had passed, the weather was cool. Wiping sweat that cooled quickly, Team Leader Mo shouted.
“Excuse me! Yeongjo Architecture! We’ve arrived now.”
Bang.
The door to the facilities office opened roughly. But there was no one inside.
“Huff, huff… Wh-what is it?”
“There’s no one here. There’s no way the deadline’s already passed…”
“Huh? There’s still one minute left.”
Just then, from behind, they saw the facilities section chief strolling in leisurely while eating bread.
“You’re here to submit?”
“Yes! Yeongjo Architecture. Here are the materials…”
“Just put them over there and go.”
Where the facilities chief pointed indifferently, panels and boxes from another company were already placed.
As Geonshin set down Division 7’s submission next to them, he saw that on the other company’s box it said, “Submitted September 16.”
‘This is Mirim Architecture’s subcontractor submission. Looks like they submitted it a week ago, since the deadline was a week earlier. The fact they turned it in without caring about quality means it really was just for formality. Just to match the page count.’
“If you head back, we’ll announce the result tomorrow and let you know. I hope you get a good result.”
“Tomorrow?”
Who the hell wraps up judging in one day, that hastily?
Someone had spent the week before the deadline struggling desperately, trying anything they could. Someone else had tossed it here a week earlier as if they had already won.
On top of that, the facilities chief’s reaction like he did not care at all seemed to flip Team Leader Mo’s insides.
Was it because it was hard to leave, putting down the submission they had treated like a child in this barren place.
Geonshin, who understood Team Leader Mo’s heart a hundred times over, soothed him and came outside with him.
“Damn it. Those bastards.”
Now there was nothing Division 7 could do.
All they could do was hope the panels and the design report would move the judges’ hearts. Winning was impossible, but a tie, if it became a tie, then it was a match worth trying.
In the distance, Director Yoo-uk was waiting for them. Director Yoo-uk too seemed to have let go of his worry, and he greeted Team Leader Mo and Geonshin, who were walking over listlessly, with a smile.
“Now let’s leave it to fate.”
The next morning.
Professor Bong stared blankly out the window from his office. The completely empty athletic field outside looked even more shabby today.
He did not know when it started, but he had begun, out of habit, spending a lot of time staring off while looking at the athletic field.
Hearing they would build a sports center there, he had, like an occupational habit, tried making his own rough plans in his head.
Then suddenly.
‘Just choose what you truly think is good.’
Director Yoo-uk’s words came back to him.
Choose what I think is good?
After those words lodged in his mind, they had continued to remain with an ominous weight for Professor Bong. He thought the man had come to solicit, but he left only those words behind.
Riiiiing.
Just then, the phone on his desk rang.
“Yes. This is Bong Junbeom. Yes, understood. I’ll go right away.”
After hanging up, he moved to the design competition judging room.
They said all preparations were complete. The outside architect had arrived, and including the president, the four of them could quickly finish the judging.
Finish quickly.
Professor Bong had already heard the president’s intention.
That he was giving work to his son-in-law at Mirim Architecture, and it was merely being put out as a design competition.
Well, Professor Bong also had expressed his architectural opinion on Mirim’s plan, so he did not have any particular complaint.
But.
‘Just choose what you truly think is good.’
What do you want me to do?
In the judging room, there were architects invited from outside, and someone from the Korea Institute of Registered Architects had come to oversee the judging process.
Maybe because of that, they had set up Mirim Architecture’s plan and the plans from the other two companies as well.
People in our country like keeping up appearances.
The president sat in the middle of the long judging table, smiling and chatting with the outside invited architect. He had probably already talked something over, of course.
After all, if the father-in-law wants to give his son-in-law some work, who would object?
The facilities section chief began the judging like an event MC.
“We will now begin the judging of the Gwangseong University Sports Center design competition. After you review the prepared panels and design reports, please select the best plan. We would appreciate it if you also write the reason for your choice and your evaluation on the documents prepared in front of you.”
Then he placed Mirim Architecture’s panel on the easel in front of the judges. Professor Bong and the president had already reviewed this panel and design report to the point of something close to a full reading.
So there was nothing new enough to be surprised by. But the outside invited architect seemed astonished by Mirim Architecture’s plan. As expected, the power of Beta Digital was immense.
The aerial view of the sports center planned by Mirim Architecture took up nearly half the panel, massively. A CG image close to a real photograph stood out first.
The aerial view was from the sidewalk across the street, looking up at the center. It captured the heavy and flashy appearance of the sports center well.
With a reddish sunset in the early evening as the backdrop, the bright lights of the sports center lit up the street, and people looked at the sports center as if amazed and fascinated.
It was staged as if they were looking up at a temple.
More than anything, what caught the invited architect’s eye was that the zinc panels wrapping the roof were slightly bent.
Mirim explained through the panel that they had drawn inspiration for that elegant curve from Korean beauty. Like a brand-new appliance just unboxed, the zinc panels shone, and the flashy glass curtain wall glittered.
The title written on one side of the panel was “Gwangseong University, a new landscape, a new landmark.” It was a piece that fully contained Director Ham’s philosophy.
At Mirim Architecture’s plan that seized the surroundings, the invited architects nodded. It was indeed worthy as a new landmark of Nowon-gu.
As they examined the design report and panel, exclamations of admiration kept pouring from the invited architects.
The outputs made by Beta Digital were, one after another, not at the level of domestic architecture. The flashy diagrams and various images fully showed why they were called master level.
The president, with a satisfied smile, described it to the invited architects as if it were already a building that would be built.
In the meantime, Professor Bong quietly glanced at the next panel.
He could not help being curious what Yeongjo Architecture’s plan, which he had not yet seen, would look like.
Whatever it was, Yeongjo Architecture still had not lost the title of number one in the industry.
What kind of direction would Yeongjo’s carefully prepared proposal take to surprise him. He recalled Director Yoo-uk’s last words once more.
‘Choose what you think is good… was it? That was some confidence.’
And then the facilities section chief added an easel next to Mirim Architecture’s panel and placed Yeongjo Architecture’s panel on it.
“Next is Yeongjo Architecture’s proposal.”
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