In 2005, the city of Seoul organized an international competition for a new Performing Arts Center on an existing island in the Hang River. The program for the new center consists of an opera house, a concert hall, a music conservatory, museum, recording studios and other support functions.



The proposal calls for a complete remake of the existing island. A series of 10 bands, each separated by water-gardens, harmoniously divides the event occurring above and below.



While the program activities are generally located within the “bands”, the complete exterior is shaped as an accessible roof-scape. Differences between landscape and building are not apparent and the entire island develops into a solid “rock-like” shape in the river.



The stepping edges of the new island provide equal shore conditions during the widely fluctuating water levels of the river. A hydro-dynamic study was conducted to ensure minimal impact of the new island on the existing river shore.



Type : Cultural - Museum, Concert Hall
Location Seoul Korea, Republic of 
Client : City of Seoul 
Building status : concept proposal 
Site size : 820000 sqft 
Site type : urban 

Christoph Kapeller

The Seoul National University Museum is defined by its siting on the side of a small hill, close to the entrance of the university. The building's form was conceived as a basic rectangular box, sliced diagonally by the incline of the hill.



This form is then raised up on a small central core – the only point of contact with the ground – so the building is nearly all cantilever, extending up and down the hill, following the topography precisely and appearing to hover above it. The museum both defines and defeats the hill, and, by keeping the ground beneath it largely free, becomes an attractive conduit between the university campus and the outside community.

Both outside and inside, free-flowing circulation was key to the thinking behind the building. The central core is an atrium with a square-spiral staircase connecting the various program areas: exhibition, education, library, and operations.



The educational spaces – the lecture hall and auditorium – exploit the slope formed by the slice for their tiered seating. The library inhabits the structural core of the building. The exhibition space, being the primary function, inhabits the entire top floor.



But it is also able to invade the educational spaces below by means of an angular ramped circulation path; the use of materials in these spaces also signals the potential continuity in the program. Elsewhere, materials vary, and include concrete flooring, plywood paneling, and translucent plastic paneling over fluorescent lighting. The museum's façade is also translucent, revealing the structural steel truss work beneath.



Type Cultural - Museum, Library Educational
Location San 56-1, Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu Seoul, 151-742 Korea, Republic of  
Status: Completed 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Site: Seoul National University Campus
Program: 4,478m2: Exhibition, Education, Library and Operations
Client: Seoul National University Museum

OMA/Rem Koolhaas