Dr Seo is Associate Professor and Head of Education at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. He has an expertise on Residential Building Design and published numerous articles on Housing Form and Culture, Morphological Analysis on Buildings and Cities, and Environmental Behaviour. His recent peer-reviewed articles include: ‘Architecture as Frozen Music: Perception of Crossing Boundaries as Audible Experience’, Archnet-IJAR, 2023 (A&HCI indexed Q1 journal: http://doi.org/10.1108/ARCH-09-2023-0251), and ‘Finding Generative Rules in Settlements and Houses by Means of an Ideographic Language’, Nexus Network Journal, 25(2), 367-385 (A&HCI indexed Q1 journal: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-022-00629-5). Dr Seo is the editor of the popular book, Architectural Imagination and Storytelling: Bartlett Scenarios (2014 by Mimesis, Seoul) that pioneered a new experimental presentation of architecture by synthesising imaginary drawings with creative narratives.

As a leading expert on modular and social housing, Dr Seo has led and participated in three international projects: Social Housing Design in the Post-Pandemic Era, funded by National Research Foundation of Korea, (2022-25; Overseas PI, 148,731 GBP); The Future Dwelling Model for the New Town Development in Korea, funded by Korea Land & Housing Corporation (2019-20; Co-I, 454,871 GBP); and Development of Structure-Infill Housing for the Low-income Population in Malaysia, funded by British Council in the UK (PI, 133,787 GBP, 2015-16).

Dr Seo is Jury President of the 6th Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival in 2024; Vice-President of KIEAE (Korea Institute of Ecological Architecture & Environment); and an Editorial Board member of Journal of Housing and Built Environment and Frontiers in Psychology. He was an honorary recipient of JSPS Invitational Fellowship from Japan Society for Promotion of Science in 2023 and Visiting Professor at Seoul Tech and Korea University in 2023. Before joining Northumbria, Dr Seo was Head of Department at Kyonggi University in South Korea, and a fulltime architect at Daewoo Construction Company in Korea, Wendel-Duchscherer Architects & Engineers in the USA, and Archiplaza Architects in Korea. He got the Bachelor of Architectural Engineering from Korea University, Master of Architecture from Georgia Tech in the USA, and PhD in Architectural Theory from Bartlett, University College London under the supervision of Professor Julienne Hanson and Bill Hillier.