National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul

Brief Information

The museum appeared on a site that for a long time had not been an ordinary urban space: first it housed the Chongchinbu office, which handled the affairs of the royal family, and later the headquarters of Korea’s Defense Security Command. Therefore, the museum’s opening in 2013 changed the meaning of the place: a closed-off area in central Seoul became accessible to visitors.

The appearance of the building is explained by its proximity to the Gyeongbokgung Palace complex. In this zone, construction may not exceed 12 meters in height, so the museum does not rise upward but goes downward: of its six floors, three are underground. This matters more than the dry figure of its area: the modern museum here is built into its historical surroundings in such a way that it does not compete with them in height.

What to Notice First

It is worth comparing the museum’s individual buildings with the way they are connected. The project was conceived as an “archipelago”: several structures stand as a group, like islands, but on the first basement level they converge into a single whole. This layout helps one read the museum not as one monolithic volume, but as a set of connected parts.

Another focus is the traces of the former site. During construction, the foundations of Chongchinbu buildings were found, after which it was decided to return the wooden structures to their former location and restore them to their original appearance. Alongside the exhibition halls, the memory of the site itself is important here. The 8 central halls are surrounded by a cinema hall, a congress hall, a digital archive, a seminar room, restaurants, and cafes; part of the area is given over to the local prefecture. In this way, the museum’s arrangement shows the idea of an “open museum”: art coexists with urban functions rather than being isolated from them.