Bureau de Change mixes hanok tiles into Seoul Biennale wall

London studio Bureau de Change drew on Korean building crafts for Echo, a concrete wall installed at Songhyeon Green Plaza in Seoul for the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. Clay roof tiles reclaimed from demolished hanok were crushed into the concrete mix, and the wall answered the biennale’s theme, “Radically More Human”, with a piece about craft, culture and continuity.

Echo draws on the layered logic of Korean craft

The design takes hanok houses as its starting point, together with three artisanal traditions: Jewajang, or roof-tile making; Beonwajang, tile roofing; and Daemokjang, traditional wooden architecture. From these the studio developed a contemporary wall built up from many layered elements.

The surface recalls the interlocking detail of timber joinery and the rhythm of clay tiles on old Korean roofs. Elements repeat horizontally and vertically, stepping forward and overlapping to cast shifting light and shadow. Their precise, lattice-like order takes its cue from the woven bamboo screens of Yeomjang.

Reclaimed hanok tiles alter the concrete surface

Clay roof tiles salvaged from demolished hanok buildings were crushed and blended into the concrete. The fragments give the wall a material link to the houses it references, along with a variation in colour that changes across the façade.

With Echo, Bureau de Change set out to rethink what a façade can be, taking forms from local crafts and building them with modern materials and construction methods. The studio describes the wall as an echo of the past that carries ideas forward.

A public installation for the 2025 Seoul Biennale

Bureau de Change was invited to take part by biennale director Thomas Heatherwick. Other contributors from the UK included Arup, Hawkins Brown, Stella McCartney, Ozwald Boateng and Stephen Webster, alongside 18 designers and architects from other countries, among them Kengo Kuma and Hyundai.

Echo opened on 26 September 2025 and remained on view until 18 November 2025.

Project Credits

Design: Bureau de Change / @bureaudechange_architects
Project: Echo
Location: Songhyeon Green Plaza, Seoul, South Korea
Year: 2025
Materials: Concrete with crushed reclaimed clay roof tiles
Event: 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
Dates: 26 September – 18 November 2025
Photography: Joel Moritz