Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
Author(s): Dongsei Kim
This playful work-in-progress portmanteau contains raw ingredients and instruments that stimulate stakeholders of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to creatively reimagine its alternative futures. It further equips us to explore productive potentials latent in the heavily militarized 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide border zone that has bisected the Korean Peninsula since 1954. The portmanteau consists of three main parts. These three parts elucidate how the two Koreas constructed the DMZ, how we can interpret it, and how we can envision it through “architectural intelligence.” These distinct individual parts imply the past; the present; and the future of the DMZ. Furthermore, when these three components are combined, they illustrate dynamic changes inherent in border zones. More importantly, it highlights architects’ agency in understanding, interpreting, and shaping the DMZ.
Volume Editors
Jasmine Benyamin, Kyle Reynolds, Mo Zell, Nikole Bouchard & Whitney Moon
ISBN
978-1-944214-28-9
