Located in the front yard of the National Museum of Korea, Future Archeology implies a sense of placeness as a museum, while in contrast also suggesting a new type of play space.
The round-shaped yard, rising up from the low hill, reveals a time from the past as if it were a site of an archeological excavation. The terrain raised in a diagonal direction becomes a sloped roof, and the space underneath it forms a shaded place that becomes active for children to experience various types of play and archeological excavation. The top of the roof serves as a platform for performances or lectures. The design functions as a fundamental playground which leads children to engage in diverse experiences and behaviours, rather than a space restricting children’s actions within a given perimeter.
Architect
NAMELESS Architecture (Na Unchung, Yoo Sorae)
Design team
Lee Jungho
Location
National Museum of Korea, Seoul, Korea
Programme
cultural facility
Site area
505m2
Building area
113m2
Building scope
15(l) × 24(w) × 5(h)m
Height
5m
Structure
steel structure
Exterior finishing
cypress, accoya, cork
Structural engineer
Teokujo
Construction
Joosung Design Lab
Design period
Feb. − June 2017
Construction period
June − Sep. 2017
Client
National Museum of Korea
NAMELESS Architecture
NAMELESS Architecture is a concept-based design practice with offices in Seoul and New York. Na Unchung and Yoo Sorae each graduated from Hongik University and Korea University. They both received M.Arch. from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States. After establishing NAMELESS Architecture in New York, they expanded their office into Seoul. They run a practice committed to simplicity in an unpredictable world, where they explore the worlds of architecture, city, and global cultural phenomena. NAMELESS’s work has been widely published and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Center for Architecture New York, Parsons the New School, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul Museum of Art and National Museum of Korea. The office has received numerous awards, including AIA New York Honor Awards, The Architectural League Prize for Young Architect, AIA New Practice New York (NPNY), Kim Swoo Geun Prize Preview Award and Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record.
