ABOUT:

Cho & Urano is an architecture firm in Salt Lake City, Utah providing a full scope of services on projects of various types and sizes, and engaging in architectural research through experiments and theoretical projects.

We started in 2020 after winning an international competition with our project House for Our Mothers. Prior to that we worked in offices in Los Angeles, Beijing, Seoul, San Francisco, and New York.

We approach each project as a continuing investigation into relationships between architecture, structure, and landscape, using sketches, models, and collected images.

Our research has touched on a variety of subjects, including houses, housing, urban design, and infrastructure. It has been exhibited in Seoul, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as at the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, and has been published internationally in A+U, Shinkenchiku, and others.

BIO:

HANSONG CHO, AIA

hansong@chourano.com
Hansong Cho received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Seoul and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. She has managed numerous residential and cultural projects in New York for the offices of Kyle May, Toshihiro Oki, and Julian von der Schulenburg. Her personal work has been exhibited at the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, the Hunter East Harlem Gallery in New York, and was featured in a retrospective exhibition of Columbia University’s best housing projects produced over a 40-year period. She has served on design juries at RISD, UCLA, USC, and Texas Tech, and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Utah School of Architecture. Hansong is a licensed architect in the State of Utah.

SASHA URANO

sasha@chourano.com
Sasha Urano grew up in Honolulu and Salt Lake City. He holds a BA in Architectural Studies from UCLA, where he graduated with distinction, and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. He has worked in a number of offices in the U.S. and Asia including Jones Partners Architecture, MAD, Mass Studies, and IDEO. Prior to co-founding Cho & Urano he spent four years as a project architect at Levenbetts in New York where he managed, among other things, a winning competition proposal for a public sculpture in Lower Manhattan and the renovation of a public library in Brooklyn. He has served on design juries at UCLA, USC, and Texas Tech, and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Utah School of Architecture.

NEWS:

  • Center for Bees featured in the Salt Lake Tribune, May 2023
  • Cho & Urano Receive Honorable Mention in Namdo Righteous Army History Museum Competition, 2022
  • House with a Corner Eave Wins Runner-Up Prize in Empowered Living Design Competition, 2021
  • Three Wall House and House with a Corner Eave Exhibited at AIA Utah Empowered Living Design Awards Ceremony, 2021
  • Salt Lake City Office Opened, June 2021
  • House for Our Mothers Published in A+U No. 592
  • House for Our Mothers Published in Shinkenchiku 2020:01
  • House for Our Mothers Awarded First Prize in Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition, 2020





HOUSE WITH A CORNER EAVE





Principal Use: Residence
Project Site: Salt Lake City, Utah
Total Floor Area: 400 sq ft.
Design Period: 2021.09-10
Host: Salt Lake City, the American Institute of Architects Utah Chapter, and the Community Development Corporation of Utah
Competition Result: Runner-up Prize
This is a tiny house for a tiny site, perhaps an underutilized patch of earth somewhere on your block. With a footprint of only 17 by 19 feet it could fit in so many places. The parts are all made in a factory somewhere, which keeps costs low (waste too). They fit onto a standard flatbed trailer, and once they have been shipped to the site it is just a matter of assembly—bathroom and kitchen first, then the loft and skylight on top of that, then walls, roof, and so on …

This house, tiny though it may be, has an inside that feels comfortable and varied despite its small footprint. There are four openings, each with a different size and orientation—a small window in the bathroom, a medium-sized window in the kitchen, a large skylight in the loft, and extra-large sliding glass doors at the corner eave of the roof. This glazed corner can be curtained off for private doings, while the spacious vertical interior, punctuated with a framed view to the heavens, provides plenty of natural light and much needed room for the mind.

Tiny though it may be, this house has a chimney which vents insalubrious airs from the kitchen and bathroom. All the fixtures and hardware are industrial grade, made to take a beating.

The universal benefits of tiny houses may be far more significant than we realize. Tiny houses require smarter use of every resource, not just space. In doing so they instill a greater sense of propriety in their owners, and promote a sense of stewardship more in proportion to the needs and values of today’s conscientious city dweller.
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