Honorable Mention

Location

Seoul, South Korea

Project

International Competition

Program

Museum, Congregation

Team

Rafael Luna, Dongwoo Yim; collaborated with Sunghyun Architecture

Concept

The concept of the project is driven by the memory and regeneration of the city and history of the site. The site has morphological character with being at the border of the old Seoul fortress and having elevated highway and underground passage overlapped. At the same time, historically, the site is also overlapped with it being a site of mass martyrdom as well as active market.​

This complex overlapping image is well reflected to the current condition of the site. On the surface of the site, there is a park to memorize martyrs with a monument. On the other hand, under the ground, there are retails and public parking lot for profit. This separation between the surface and the underground is the clearest character of the site, but at the same time, the main reason that dilutes the color of the park.​

In this project, we try to keep the physical character of the current park while putting new programs. No matter whether it is aesthetically worth, this is a very important that defines the character of the park, and in this way, we can realize memory and regeneration.​

Therefore, the proposed design keeps the existing underground cavity as much as possible so that it can make a room to house new programs. Also, following the existing grid system, the three-dimensional grid system becomes a platform to locate program boxes.​

All the programs are accessible from the sunken level rather than surface level. And the grid boxes generates a new terrain that meets with the context. It is to have the memorial church, plaza and the museum in the quieter space, and abolish the separation between surface and underground.

Thus, the Memorial Space and the Historic Park are not divided but open to each other, and in occasions, the Memorial Space can create devout atmosphere. By regenerating the terrain to meet the level of context in every signal point, we expect to have more open park. Also, by locating memorial programs below the grade, we are able to generate solemn space that also gravitates visitors to the park.