Hyundai Card Culture Project 15_Young Architects Program, which is the first architecture show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, is organised by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art and Hyundai Card. The Young Architects Program began in 1998 in the Museum of Modern Art. It is a meaningful project that is committed to fostering young and emerging architectural talent by providing the opportunity to design and present their own projects. The Young Architects Program is a temporary outdoor installation that provides shade, seating, and water aiming to provide pleasant spaces for visitors during summer season. Since then, the project has expanded considerably with CONSTRUCTO in Chile joining in 2010 followed by the National Museum of XXI Century Arts of Italy the following year. The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Turkey also joined the international network in 2013 and continues to collaborate on the program. And just this year, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea joined the Young Architects Program network, the very first museum in Asia to do so. Hyundai Card Culture Project 15_Young Architects Program will provide young architects with opportunities to enhance their capacity and let visitors enjoy creativity of young promising architects.
“In this urban courtyard where the art space and the public space meet, we dream that there can be architecture of activity, architecture of image, and architecture of memory for all.”
– Moon Ji Bang
Moon Ji Bang’s Shinseon Play is the winning proposal of the 2014 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Young Architects Program. Moon Ji Bang is a project team comprising Choi Jang-won, Kwon Kyung-min, and Park Cheon-kang. As the architects explain, the structure was inspired by an ancient Korean myth: “Shinseons are imaginary Taoist hermits . . . . [who] live on top of high mountains or above clouds, transcending the hustle and bustle of the human world of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.” Cloud-like balloons are carefully controlled to gently sway under the force of pre-programmed changes in air pressure or human interactions. A trampoline is placed amongst the balloons so that one can jump up through the “clouds” and into the mist above. While walking on a wooden bridge above the clouds, with mist coming out from the side, one would experience a magically transformed world as well as a wonderful place to cool down in the summer. All these elements play their roles to fully realize the theme of the work. A view from Jongchinbu, a historic building next to the museum, is greatly impressive and immediately reminds us of the title of the work. The architects group wanted to provide a space where visitors can take a stroll and have a rest as if they are Shinsheon.
The finalists for this year’s competition are Kim Sejin, Nameless Architecture (Na Unchung and Yoo Sorae), Lee Yongju, and AnLstudio (Ahn Keehyun, Lee Minsoo, and Shin Minjae).
Kim Sejin tries to incorporate various activities and programmes in the Museum Plaza through Pliable imagination. This work is composed of pillars, water ways and white boxes, where visitors can create their own places. NAMELESS Architecture’s In the Air tries to reveal new relationships between floating spaces (and nature) and visitors. As the trees in the air stay there against gravity, this project also blurs the borderline between architecture and art. Lee Yongju’s Hydrologic House is a device monitoring natural environments. Through computer algorithmic software, a continual diffusion beyond the visual, material, and perceptual boundaries of MMCA courtyard space is captured and frozen in the gradient perforation of façade. Unvoidic Void creates a space that has unclear shape and boundary. Each unit comes together and builds a whole structure and AnLstudio expects that this space can provide visitors with unique spaces and experience.
