Hospitality Design - July 2022 - 132

the power couple
Eric Höweler and J. Meejin Yoon
Founding Principals
Höweler + Yoon
For the last 18 years, the husband-and-wife team of Eric
Höweler and J. Meejin Yoon have built a reputation
for work that is innovative and socially engaging while
also being conceptually rigorous. Believing design is an
instrument for imagining and implementing change, the
fi rm takes on atypical endeavors, including interactive
landscapes, submersible structures, stone vaulting, and
media projects.
The duo met in architecture school at Cornell in 1990
before marrying in 2002, launching their Boston-based
fi rm three years later. Höweler cut his teeth with Diller
Scofi dio + Renfro and Kohn Pedersen Fox, while Yoon
worked at Dean/Wolf Architects and launched a small
practice called NY Studio. " It was a leap of faith to have
a practice together, " Yoon admits. Their fi rst project
was a house, and " we had to fi gure it out together. It was
great that we had each other because it's scary starting
a design practice and not knowing what you're doing, "
adds Höweler.
In the early days, their philosophy was to say yes to
everything. " We were also curious, so we didn't know
how to say no. Everything seemed interesting, " says
Höweler. " There's a sense of excitement to build a
practice, " Yoon adds. " In many ways, the term 'practice'
is particularly appropriate because you learn through
iteration, making mistakes, and accruing knowledge as
you go. "
Today, Höweler + Yoon is a dedicated group of 30
architects, designers, and researchers taking on projects
that are focused on social good. Consider the Memorial
to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia (UVA)
Offering an eye-level view of the Schuylkill River, the circular FloatLab is
designed to connect Philadelphians and visitors with their natural setting
in Charlott esville. Designed by Thomas Jeff erson as a
" fantastic arrangement of architecture and landscape, "
Höweler says, it was also a " campus designed and built by
enslaved people. The architecture of Jeff erson's academic
village was designed to produce an ideal society, but
that ideal society was built on the backs of forced labor
and an institution of violence. " The abstract granite ring
embedded in the terrain is a place where people can
gather, grieve, and respect their ancestors.
They are pushing that idea further with the Institute
of Democracy facility, also at UVA, which explores what
democracy means today and how architecture can play a
role in the process, " not just in terms of imagery, " Höweler
adds, " but also in terms of platforms that bring people
together as a site of convening-as a space of debate. "
Their commitment to learning extends beyond their
The Memorial to the Enslaved Laborers at the University of
Virginia features an abstract granite ring embedded in the
terrain creating a circular gathering space for the community
132
practice, with Yoon named the Gale and Ira Drukier
Dean of Cornell University's College of Architecture,
Art, and Planning and Höweler an associate professor
in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of
Design. " That's the beauty of being in thesis because [the
students are] teaching us all the time, " says Höweler. " It's
an incredible privilege. "
July 2022 hospitalitydesign.com
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Hospitality Design - July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - July 2022
