▴ Forum explores the changing landscape of stay and hospitality under the theme ‘A space that has become the destination, not the backdrop of a journey’

▴ Sheraton Jeju presented as a case of reinterpreting an ‘Atrium Hotel’ into an ‘Oceanfront Hotel’

Hyosang Lee, architect at Gansam, will join Host Architect Forum 2026 as a panelist on September 5, sharing insights on changing hospitality spaces and new experiences of stay.

Hosted by KIRA as part of the 18th Seoul International Architecture Film Festival, the forum carries the theme ‘Stay — A space that has become the destination, not the backdrop of a journey.’ It examines how accommodation has moved beyond being a facility required along the way, to a point where the experience of staying itself becomes the purpose of travel — discussed from the perspectives of architecture, space planning and operations.

Lee will present the repositioning of Sheraton Jeju under the title ‘The Evolution of Our Own Heritage : Sheraton Jeju (1994-2026).’

Sheraton Jeju, set to open this September, was remodeled by Gansam — the firm that designed the original building more than three decades ago. The remodeling carries forward the spatial value and sense of place of the existing architecture, while repositioning the hotel’s spatial experience and identity for changed travel patterns and hospitality environments.

The original design began with its setting on the northern coast of Jeju and the island’s irregular maritime climate. A curved exterior evoking a moored passenger ship was wrapped with deck-like terraces, and an atrium of urban scale was placed inside a building some 200 meters long. It created an all-weather space independent of the weather, while the sea remained something to be viewed through guest room windows.

The repositioning focused on reorganizing the relationships between the sea and the city, and between people and space. The atrium-centered ‘inward-oriented spatial structure’ was turned into an ‘outward-oriented spatial structure’ that extends the spatial experience toward the sea and nature of Jeju, and the value of the oceanfront — once concentrated in the guest rooms — was extended across the lobby, lounge, dining and pool.

As a result, the building changed from an ‘Atrium Hotel,’ a vertical city within, into an ‘Oceanfront Hotel’ that faces outward and becomes the destination of a journey.

“In the original design, the sea was an object to be viewed. Now what was needed was a shift toward a program in which coming and staying itself becomes the destination of the journey,” Lee said. “It is a work that reinterpreted space and program on a continuity of time rather than a break from it.”

Lee has carried out design projects centered on hospitality and leisure. His major works include ▴MONDRIAN SEOUL ITAEWON ▴Gravity Seoul Pangyo ▴Local Stitch Creator Town Seogyo ▴Sheraton Jeju, and he received IDEA 2024 for the movable modular ‘Tiny Resort.’

Host Architect Forum 2026 takes place at 2 p.m. on September 5 at the Grand Auditorium of Ewha Womans University. Younggyu Shim, architecture PD at Project Day, moderates, with panelists Hyosang Lee of Gansam, Kyungrok Noh, co-principal of Z_Lab, and Seokhun Kim, creative director of Studio Eccentric.

Further details are available on the official channels of the Seoul International Architecture Film Festival. Registration is available through Naver Smart Store.

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