STUDIO EMPATHY
[News]
06/ 2025: Awarded AZ Awards 2025 Award of Merit, CA
05/ 2025: Awarded 2025 NYCxDESIGN Awards Honoree, US
04/ 2025: Honored Red Dot Design Award: Product Design 2025, DE
03/ 2025: Honored iF Design Award 2025, DE
03/ 2025: The Library design featured in Premier Construction Magazine, UK.
12/ 2024: Awarded Best of Year 2024 Honoree from Interior Design Magazine, US
10/ 2024: The Library design featured in Dezeen, UK
ABOUT
Founded in 2022, studio empathy is a New York-based award-winning design agency aspires to reshape contemporary life of human beings and recreate various cultural resources existing on our planet through interdisciplinary practices in architecture and interior design, expanding to other design fields including branding, furniture, industrial, graphic, media design and even art works, achieved by the idea of Design of Things emerging from emotional network among people, environments and cultures. studio empathy explores intrinsic in manmade Things, optimized fusion of imaginary possibility and pragmatic experiment, therefore approaches design as Reciprocal Consequence with a belief that a good design is implemented and finally sustained by interaction with people and its environment where it belongs.
studio empathy has been striving to use design as an interfacing agent among various spatial dimensions in the built environment. Forging versatility of design to reconcile and integrate urban grids, landscape, ground, buildings and interiors, studio empathy is dedicated to creating spaces where the client’s visions and demands materialize, and the resident and the community experience the power and grace of space. studio empathy’s unique design approach comes from an innate understanding of materials and pursuing conceptual clarity through spatial innovations. We believe design can improve our everyday lives and transform them into something extraordinary. We focus on expanding the reach of design through practice, education, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
studio [em]pathy 공감능력(共感能力).
의뢰인과 공감하고 사용자와 대중과 공감하며 도시환경 나아가 사회문화와 공감하는 사물과 공간을 구상하고 실현합니다.
LEAD DESIGNER
Choi, Changhaak 최창학 | Founding & Creative Director
Changhaak Choi is a Founding & Creative Director and leads all scope of design solutions in architecture, interior, furniture, graphics and art works. His education includes a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP, a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in architectural design received in Korea. He has over twenty years’ professional experience and has been establishing professional distinction in design industries based on his interests on “reciprocity” in design.
His design recognized with numerous design competition winning entries and international awards including iF Design Award, Red Dot Design Award, Interior Design Best of Year Awards, NYCxDesign Awards, AZ Awards, Would Architecture News (WAN) Awards, Matthew W. Del Gaudio Memorial Award, and nominated as 100 Architects of the year 2019 in Korea by UIA and appointed Next Generation Design Leaders by Korea Institute of Design Promotion. He is the fellow member of SOM fellowship and his works exhibited in New York, Seoul and Madrid, and published extensively in leading design journals and books worldwide.
SELECTED PRIOR PROJECT EXPERIENCE
CULTURAL/ INSTITUTIONAL/ CIVIC
Library at Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY), NY, US
Museum of Korean Art (MOKA), NY, US
National Museum of Agricultural Experience, Suwon, KOR
Incheon International Airport Terminal 2 Phase 2, Incheon, KOR
Olympic Gymnastics Arena Renovation, Seoul, KOR
Board Art Museum Proposal, Los Angeles, CA, US
The Cleveland Museum Of Art Phase 2 Expansion, Cleveland, OH, US
WORKPLACE
SK hynix America Office Renovation, NY, US
SK Square Executive Office Renovation, NY, US
SK Telecom TMT Investment Flagship Office Renovation, NY, US
Hanwha Vision Innovation and Technology Experience Center, Chicago, NY
Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, Honolulu, US
Hyundai Heavy Industries Headquarters, Suwon, KOR
Hyundai Department Store Group Headquarters, Seoul, KOR
Nexen R&D Center, Seoul, KOR
National Assembly Communication Building, Seoul, KOR
RESIDENTIAL
10 West End Condo-Unit Renovations, NY, US
Park Loggia Condo-Unit Renovations, NY, US
One57 Condo-Unit Renovations, NY, US
5th Avenue Residential Tower Development, NY, US
Sejong 2-2 M2 Block Masterplan, Sejong, KOR
EDUCATIONAL
University of Greenwich Stockwell Street Development, London, UK
New York University Abu Dhabi Campus, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Columbia University New Business School Proposal, New York, NY, US
UCSF Institution for Regeneration Medicine Research Center, San Francisco, CA, US
Claremont McKenna College North Campus, City of Claremont, CA, US
HOSPITALITY/ COMMERCIAL/ MIXED-USE
Dong-Seoul Terminal & Hotel Development, Seoul, KOR
Downtown Broadway Hotel Development, NY, US
Downtown Jebel Ali Development, Dubai, UAE
Vdara Hotel & Spa, Las Vegas, NV, US
MASTERPLAN
Mina Zayed Waterfront Development, Abu Dhabi, UAE
New Stanford Hospital Masterplan, CA, US
Battersea Power Station Redevelopment Master Plan, London UK