Seoul Photographic Art Museum proposal by JWA, Jin & Woo Architects + SNB

Jaeho Jin and Junghyo Woo of U.S.-based design firm JWA, in collaboration with South Korean local firm SNB, received 5th Prize for their Seoul Photographic Art Museum international design competition entry.

The museum will be located in the northeastern region of the South Korean capital, which currently lacks cultural and exhibition facilities. The Seoul Photographic Museum will be the first in the country to specialize in photography and video.

The area of Chang-dong aims to be revitalize the region's economy by preserving visual cultural heritage and providing local residents with cultural entertainment.

Read on for some initial details of their proposal.

JWA design principal Jaeho Jin said in a statement. "The museum of the new era does not exist just for exhibition. While people use the museum as a place of cultural activity, it is also a place where they can spend their daily lives. The museum, where unexpected events, encounters, and acts take place, is perceived as an unexpected form in the context of the city and hopes to provide us with an unexpected place. The Seoul Public Photography Art Museum, which will be built in Chang-dong, captures the unexpected."

"Apart from the formal integrity, the convergence of the places created by the unexpected mass fragments will serve as a medium to activate the Chang-dong Culture Street and provide a device of harmony with the surrounding buildings. In addition, it has a variety of orientations without having a single facade to harmonize with the surrounding buildings."

In order to show the identity of the museum of photography, the camera and the attached lens were shaped by the design motif. Cubes resembling lenses are the main passages of light and are devices that transmit and control high-quality light inside the museum. In the sense of the medium that the camera creates as an image through light, the devices that act as the aperture of the shape of the mass and the facade enrich the light flowing into the museum.

In addition, the meaning of 'blackness' in the selection of materials and materials means that the material and color of the camera and the sensitivity of the light-sensitive camera, which minimize the reflection and absorb the light, are 'Homage' of the materials and colors represented by the camera.

"It is intended to be expressed as visitors will be able to enjoy both the exhibition and the space by feeling the softness and warmth of the light from the skylight and the light spreading lightly along the curve of the inner wall that warms the exhibition space. In addition, the natural light and lighting naturally turn to the exhibition for the purpose, but the urban landscape seen through the lens frame from the inside will be another moving exhibition that visitors can enjoy at this museum." 

"The Seoul Museum of Photography in Chang-dong takes the strategy of giving away the small space to the public as much as possible, and is planned to be a concept of 'borderless' rather than an art gallery exclusively for exhibitions. By changing the layout of the building, open areas on the side and corners are created, and the museum maximizes its utility as a place to breathe with the residents first. Buildings with new axes will have the advantage of enjoying the city in multiple directions from inside and out."

Find more project images in the gallery below.