SPACE July 2023 (No. 668)
View of The House of the Painter Kim Tschang Yeul (1988) / Images courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government
The House of the Painter Kim Tschang Yeul, located in Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, was designed by architect Kyu Sung Woo in 1984 at the request of the late artist Kim Tschang Yeul (1929 – 2021) and as completed in 1988. Jongno-gu, which purchased the house last year, applied for a review of the house to preserve and share its architectural value, and it was registered as Exceptional Architectural Asset no. 13 by Seoul Metropolitan Government through the resolution of the 9th Architectural Asset Expert Committee held on May 11. In 2020, Jongno-gu signed the ‘MOU for the Establishment of a Municipal Art Museum’ with senior painters and collectors, including Kim Tschang Yeul, and promised mutual cooperation in the establishment of a municipal art museum using the artist’s home.
The House of the Painter Kim Tschang Yeul
has historical value as a space where the artist lived and worked for 30 years
until the end of his life, after having been active in France for a long time.
At the same time, the structure, materials, and initial form reflecting the
architectural characteristics of Kyu Sung Woo are well preserved. The house,
which has two basements and two floors and a total floor area of approximately
460m2, is characterised by its organic relationship with the
surrounding landscape, nature, and light, as with Kyu Sung Woo’s representative
works such as Olympic Seonsuchon Apartments (1988) and Whanki Museum (1992).
This evident in the layout of the building, which naturally follows the slope,
and in the light that enters through the circular skylight. Buildings and
infrastructure that are registered as Exceptional Architectural Asset in recognition
of their historical, scenic, artistic, and sociocultural values are subject to
relaxed regulations in 24 categories, such as floor area ratio and parking lot
installation standards. A total of 13 sites have been registered since 2017.
The House of the Painter Kim Tschang Yeul has been evaluated as having high
potential for revitalising the local economy when opened to the public, and so
it is also noteworthy for its utilisation plan.
by Youn Yaelim
