BRIAN KIM

Brian Kim is the founder & creative director of POA. He is an award winning architect, designer, and educator. His roots stem from the south & midwest of America, where he studied at the University of Florida in which he received his Bachelor of Design, and the University of Cincinnati where he received his Master of Architecture. His graduate thesis SUPERFICIAL SEOUL would receive the top Directors' Choice Award for best graduate thesis in Architecture, and the Distinguished Design in Urban Design Award for contributions toward critical research and design in Urbanism.

His diverse experience in both professional and academic settings has broadened his scope and perspective within the field of architecture.  He has worked domestically in New York City, Chicago, & Atlanta, and internationally in The Netherlands with the Dutch office Mecanoo Architecten. He has been an invited critic & faculty at Columbia, Cornell, Pratt, IIT, University of Cincinatti, & University of Florida.

With his studies rooted in interior space, then expanded into architecture and urbanism, this has undoubtedly cultivated the ways in which Brian confronts and negotiates the relationships between space, scale, and substance.  This negotiation takes shape in his designs where normative forms and situations are often inverted and re-presented, with a dose of critical irony. He considers himself a lifetime student, and his curiosity has often lead him to other interdisciplinary forms of education and experimentation.  Hence, Brian's work has many tangential moments where the fields of arts, graphics, fashion, ceramics, and film have all been tested.  Brian currently resides in Chicago where he works in architecture and freelances on design projects.