ART FORUM
Suncheon, South Korea
Project
Art Galleries, Urban Plaza, and Visitor Center
Client
The City of Suncheon
Size
5,400 sqm / 58,000 sqft
Awards
Honorable Mention
SUNCHEON ART FORUM
The Suncheon Art Forum integrates public art, architecture and landscape forming an important public space for the residents of Suncheon while creating a new international destination for the city. The variety of spatial conditions frame activities, facilitate dialogue, and promote civic interchange. The form and landscape for the Suncheon Art Forum shapes a series of new interconnected outdoor public spaces, including a community plaza, amphitheater, a public park, sunken sculpture galleries, café, and Yeonja-ru river overlook. Art spaces have been located above and below grade, freeing up the ground plane for installations and connections between indoor exhibitions and outdoor installations. The gallery and lecture center holds an urban edge towards Joonang Ro road to the east while the main galleries float above street level, creating unexpected encounters with art and views from the street of fashion directly into the site. On the opposite side, the building opens a generous public plaza to Young dong and the street of culture. Cut into the site, a series of interconnected outdoor galleries provide spaces for contemplative sculpture viewing while remaining visible from the street. At the lower level, connections are provided to below-grade parking and the underground shopping center. The café and Yeonja-ru mediate between the plaza and Okcheon stream, connecting the two urban spaces.
Board-formed concrete defines the primary planes of the building and site walls, creating a neutral and durable frame for exhibition display. Green patinated copper panels accent the concrete and reflect color from soffits into the sunken courtyards and recall traditional Korean Temple architecture with their brightly painted soffits and roof overhangs. The patinated copper delineates the meandering Yeonja-ru trajectory from plaza to overlook to the river walk. Inside, galleries shaped by polished concrete walls, white terrazzo, and plaster ceilings create a serene, contemplative environment for art.
EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC
URBAN CONTEXT
CONCEPT
SUNKEN LOWER LEVEL GALLERIES
PLAZA ENTRANCE
GALLERY INTERIOR
LOWER LEVEL PLAN
Lower Level Plan with sunken art galleries, connection to underground shopping street, and parking.
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
First Floor Plan with public plaza, entrances, auditorium, and museum facilities.
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
Second Floor Plan with main galleries, auditorium, and community facilities.
YEONJA RU
A space to contemplate the landscape, a Yeonja-ru, is designed as an extension of the landscape - a winding connection between the Okcheon Stream walk and the Art Forum site. Patinated copper walls signal the entrance to the Art Forum from the walk way bringing people up into the site or above the stream to an overlook vantage point. The undulating form has an unmistakable identity while encouraging contemplation of the landscape through promenade and prospect.
