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





YEOUI NARU FERRY TERMINAL





Principal Use: Passenger Terminal, Ticket Offices, Operational Facilities, Observation Deck
Project Site: Seoul, South Korea
Total Floor Area: 2,400 sq m.
Host: Seoul Metropolitan Government
Located on the Han River, lifeline to Seoul's early settlers, the island of Yeouido during the first half of the 20th century had not much more than an airport and flight school on its sandy, flood-prone top surface. Now, half a century later, it is home to Seoul's political scene, finance industry, the country’s largest media companies, and the world’s biggest megachurch. In keeping with this trend the Seoul Metropolitan Government has designated a parcel of river surface fronting Yeouido Han River Park as the site of a new ferry terminal to be integrated with boating operations already in place and connecting directly to the Line 5 subway station nearby. The terminal will function as an important launching point for tourists and sightseers venturing out to explore the cityscape on their way to cultural pilgrimage sites around the island and beyond.

Supported on a steel pontoon structure the terminal will house a combination of commercial and government uses distributed between an upper tower portion and a lower marina/concourse portion. Its articulated footprint attempts to resolve three slightly misaligned Cartesian grids—derived from the concrete shoreline and elements of the neighboring park—with the need to accommodate the berthing of five government advertising boats at the same time, each measuring 60m x 12m and weighing 700 tons. The envelope’s uncomplicated fenestration, concrete roof pavers, and corrosion-resistant metal cladding, with oversized gate numbers debossed, speak to the local vernacular of flat-gray apartment blocks, each one’s address rendered in large numbers on an otherwise blank facade.

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