SOPHIE HICKS ARCHITECTS

INTERIOR DESIGN MAGAZINE

GANGNAM WHAT?

By Mairi Beautyman. Photographs by Annabel Elston. April 2016

Sophie Hicks’s spare ACNE boutique in Seoul, South Korea, is the opposite of pop.

The Gangnam district of Seoul was single-handedly catapulted into the world’s consciousness by the horse-trot dance moves and universally catchy beat of Psy’s self-deprecating video for “Gangnam Style.” Four years later, this poke at the lavish lifestyle of the toniest district in the South Korean capital holds tight to its position as the most popular YouTube video of all time. Satire or no, style there certainly is in this luxury retail wonderland, home to boutiques for Chanel, Christian Dior, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and more.

A glimpse of signage beckons shoppers down a side street near the river to find still another label, “The sensation of solitude is extremely rare this city of over 10 million” Sweden’s ACNE Studios. (That’s an acronym in English: Ambition to Create Novel Expressions.) ACNE creative director Jonny Johansson brought in Sophie Hicks Architects from London to design the freestanding building after admiring the firm’s worldwide Chloé boutiques, paneled in raw plywood. To set off ACNE’s bold, multicolored clothing for both women and men, statement pieces that Sophie Hicks calls “very punchy and, at the same time, forward-thinking,” she envisioned a two-story structure resembling a ghostly light box with “very little outward expression.”

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MAGAZINES

ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL

SOPHIE HICKS ARCHITECTS DESIGNS MINIMALIST CONCRETE HOUSE IN KENSINGTON
By Fran Williams
Photographs by Annabel Elston
February 2019

GINZA SIX MAGAZINE

ALAIA: EMBEDDED IN THE DESIGN
by Yoshinao Yamada
Photos by Junpei Kato
Portrait of Sophie Hicks by Alasdair McClellan.
Autumn 2022

THE MODERN HOUSE

ARCHITECT SOPHIE HICKS ON LIFE IN HER HIDDEN CONCRETE HAVEN IN KENSINGTON
by The Modern House
Summer 2023

INTERIOR + DESIGN, RUSSIA

1A EARL’S COURT SQUARE
by Danila Varennikov
Photographs by Adrian Gaut, Alasdair McLellan, Annabel Elston & Sophie Hicks Architects
October 2019

VOGUE ITALIA

INTERVISTA A SOPHIE HICKS
Words by Sennait Ghebreab
Photography by Adrian Gaut, Alasdair McLellan, Hong Kiwoong and Shin Hyo Geun
June 2026

FT HTSI

SEOUL PURPOSE
Words by Victoria Woodcock
Photography by Taemin Ha
April 2026