BOLDFACERS

Designer Buildings

Architect and aspiring TV host Stephen Chung is madly in love with…buildings! And here are those closest to his heart:

1. The Campus Center at Wellesley. "I love how interconnected the spaces are. The high degree of transparency fosters interaction between the building's users — just what you would want in a campus center."

2. The Simmons Hall Dormitory at MIT. "This ‘sponge-like’ building is uncanny, like something I've never seen before. It is site-specific — it responds to its circumstance — but does so without copying the local context."

3. The Carpenter Center at Harvard. "The idea of cracking open an arts center to allow for a public path is wonderful. Passersby get an inside look at students creating art as it’s happening."

The Show behind the Host

"Cool Spaces is a proposed television show that explores the most provocative public-space architecture in the 21st century," says architect and aspiring TV host Stephen Chung. "As host for the show, I will take viewers on an immersive tour of some of the most important buildings of our time. See www.coolspaces.tv to see the green-lit one-hour special for PBS."

Why Design?

"Most of us spend an inordinate amount of time in buildings," says architect and aspiring TV host Stephen Chung. "Whether it’s our house or where we work, the environment affects us in some way. In the case of a particularly well-designed building — architecture — the effects can be powerful. It could be about making healthier environments, more energy-efficient buildings, an inspiring place to learn or worship. Architecture has the capacity to inspire, to enrich our lives in some way. I want to highlight some especially significant buildings. Once people have a better understanding of the different ways that architects and designers are trying to improve the built environment, I am hopeful more and more people will see the value of good design."

My Town, Your Town

"In addition to my work as an architect, I am very interested in the effects of the internet on culture," says architect and aspiring TV host Stephen Chung. "Specifically, I wondered how social media could improve my experience of suburban life. In response, I created a social-media and community website for my town called mytown.net. In short, it is a website where residents can post news and information about their town. I figured, what better way to get to know people in town than to hear it from them firsthand? Based on the early success of the site, I recently opened it up to all of Massachusetts. I hope people find that it’s a nice resource for getting to know your neighbors."

The Artillery

"There is a design program called Google SketchUp that is simply fantastic," says architect and aspiring TV host Stephen Chung. "It is the most intuitive computer design tool that I have experienced. When Google acquired the program a while back, it integrated all of its offerings into the program — like Google Earth. So now, when I design a building I can drop it into the world in its context and see what it would look like built. Just having this ability to test a design in the real world — it’s amazing! It goes without saying that Google Earth is such a great tool for exploring the world. Imagine flying through New York or Tokyo and getting a real sense of what it’s like there! What an amazing program!"

Get Drafted

"I would strongly recommend that any young person intern at an architecture office as soon as possible — even as a volunteer if necessary," says architect and aspiring TV host Stephen Chung. "Architecture is a profession, and as much as it is romanticized as an art, not being aware and understanding that it is a business will derail even the most talented designers."

Designing Democracy

Keywords: Design

When Stephen Chung looks at a building, he sees different things than the rest of us. There's the light, first of all -- how it streams in through the windows and flows through rooms. Then, there's the layout; does it reflect what goes on in the rooms? Finally, there's the construction. Is it well-built?What types of materials were chosen? Stephen knows that each element is always a choice, after all. But one thing was never up for debate: Stephen was destined to be an architect.

When most other kids on the Sugarbush Mountain chairlift were plotting how fast they'd roar down Jester, Stephen gazed down at the web of trails and thought, "Well, that's just neat." Somebody's job was to draw a map of trails and then have them built, and that was the coolest thing ever to the nine-year-old Albany native. His doctor dad hoped his boy would follow suit or become a lawyer, but he pretty much knew that wouldn't happen: by ninth grade, Stephen was signing his homework “Stephen K. Chung & Associates.”

Stephen would go on to earn a master's in architecture at Harvard University and teach at Cornell and RISD, among others, as well as work with some of the most prestigious architecture firms and names in the world, including Richard Meier & Partners, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering, and Philippe Starck, who might have impressed Stephen the most. Starck believes in democratic design, in the idea that quality pieces should be accessible to everyone — from toothbrushes at Target to high-end sofas in the Design Center. Stephen believes this too, to the point where he's switched paths to produce and host a PBS show called Cool Spaces, which hunts out the best-designed spaces in the world and informs everyone about how to spot good design and why it matters. If that's not enough, he's made the final rounds of the entrepreneurial reality show Shark Tank for his creation of MyTown.net, a social-media and community site for folks in the suburbs. And if there's any downtime, you can be sure Stephen's just looking at buildings, you know, in that way that he does.

www.coolspaces.tv