Catabolism

Commissioned by ARKO (Arts Council Korea), the Korean Pavilion is pleased to announce Catabolism, its exhibition for the 20th Venice Architecture Biennale (2027). Led by curator Janghwan Lee, with participating contributors Bae Yoonkyung, Kyo Suk Lee, and Jaehyub Ko, the exhibition examines Korea’s condition of “hyper-shrinkage” within the global context of population decline and ageing societies. Bringing together architectural practice, urban research, and inquiries into representation, the team shifts attention from metropolitan growth and expansion towards the transformations unfolding as cities contract.

Catabolism is the metabolic process through which complex molecules or body tissues break down into simpler units, releasing energy. The exhibition adopts this concept as a lens for examining the pressures of disappearance in Korea, the resulting urban and architectural mutations and by-products, and the possibilities emerging within them. Drawing on research by the Mid-Size City Forum, it explores “urban perforation”: the scattered openings left by the demolition of vacant houses as urban use becomes less intensive outside major metropolitan regions. Becoming parking lots, vegetable gardens, or unused land, these spaces reconfigure relationships between buildings, streets, and everyday life.

Alongside this emptying out, existing buildings continue to accumulate layers. Canopies, exterior staircases, and lightweight additions respond to immediate needs, while spaces are subdivided, connected, and repurposed. Catabolism brings these simultaneous processes of subtraction and addition into conversation, approaching shrinkage not as the cessation of change but as a condition in which its forms and scales shift. Without romanticising decline, the Korean Pavilion asks how architecture can engage with what remains—through dismantling, repair, reuse, and incremental adaptation—and reveal new spatial relationships within cities beyond growth.

Curator
Janghwan Lee is the principal of Urban Operations, co-representative of the Mid-Size City Forum, and an adjunct professor at Hanyang University.

Participating Contributors
Bae Yoonkyung examines how space is produced and received through architectural representation and perspective, alongside teaching architectural design and theory and writing for publications.

Kyo Suk Lee has led architectural and urban projects and research initiatives at MVRDV, exploring urban development and transformation and the relationships between knowledge ecosystems and urban space.

Jaehyub Ko is co-principal of Mission Object and a licensed architect in Korea. Educated at Yonsei University and the Royal College of Art, he teaches as an adjunct professor at Yonsei University and Hongik University.