"We need to rethink the basic concept of architecture, starting with everything we've learned so far. Western architecture approaches things by separating subject and object, matter and spirit, appearance and essence. Eastern architecture, Korean architecture above all, starts from a monist view instead: appearance and reality are ultimately one. Through the Japanese colonial era, when Japanese builders with no philosophical roots ran rampant, Western ideas and techniques were grafted on, and a deformed building technology with no sense of courtesy (禮) developed at breakneck speed. The apartment is its prime example. It looks convenient, but it's cost Koreans the warmth and courtesy that were ours. This Jangju research complex has to reflect the restoration of that spirit."

So what's that supposed to mean?

Who on earth is he?

The client's man held forth like an old professor, and Yun So-jin and the rest of the design team watched, still unable to figure out how things had come to this.

The CEO of a construction company had bowed his head and apologized to someone from the client.

Just as this lone client employee had warned, the group audit team was sent in an hour later and turned the office upside down.

Two days after that, the team leader got the ax for bribery, embezzlement and neglect of duty.

Word was that the bribes he'd squeezed out of subcontractors came close to a billion won, and the staff could only shake their heads.

This was a team leader who'd never once bought anyone a meal or even a cup of coffee.

The cheapskate would nag the staff to cut back if they drank a few cups of the office coffee a day.

Nobody had known the stingy team leader had that kind of nerve.

The managing director and the CEO, both tied up in it, were thrown out too.

The CEO had survived the TS Group's upheaval on the strength of his management skills.

But he was fired along with the rest for looking the other way—abetting his circle in the name of old school ties.

A good number of stuck-in-their-ways executives…