"Architecture can easily feel difficult and dull, so we thought hard about how to make it interesting for every citizen. Spending time in a space, resting and enjoying it — that itself is culture."
The 18th Seoul Architecture Festival has been built as an exhibition hall where anyone can linger comfortably. Kook Hyoung-gul, the festival's artistic director and a professor of architecture at Ewha Womans University, explained the concept this way at a press tour held on the 22nd at the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture in Jung-gu, Seoul.
Held under the theme "Assembling Seoul: Discovering Seoul," this year's festival runs from the 15th of this month through Oct. 11 at the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture. Admission is free, and the venue is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, except Mondays and the Chuseok holiday itself.
Stepping into the basement exhibition hall, a black structure stacked high beneath a ceiling roughly 15 meters tall comes into view. It is an exhibition space that gathers models, photographs and interview videos of the festival's award-winning works into a single tower. Visitors can move between the structures while examining the works, and one corner offers a place to lie down and rest.
Industrial Pallets Transformed Into a Distinctive Exhibition Hall
The structure is built from pallets — the platforms used at industrial sites to hold and move goods. About 1,000 pallets were used for this year's festival. They were stacked to display the award-winning works in tower form, with passages left open between them.
Once the exhibition ends, the pallets can be returned to industrial use. They can be rented for the period needed and then returned, which makes them both economical and environmentally friendly.
"The goal is for visitors to enjoy the overall mood and the space itself while looking at each work," Kook said. "We used pallets as a material while thinking about how to make it interesting." He added: "They are cheap and easy to build with, they are environmentally friendly, and children find the material itself interesting to look at and experience."
The structures were raised high to match the tall ceiling, with blue and yellow accents against the black pallets to add a sense of depth. Rather than simply lining up the works, the design lets visitors take in the atmosphere and spatial feel of the entire hall as they examine each piece.
Seoul Found Inside a Maze: A City's Many Faces in 23 Photographs
Deeper inside the hall is the artistic director's thematic exhibition, "Discovering Seoul." Twenty-three photographs of the city are arranged in a maze-like space built from pallets.
Inside the maze, it is impossible to see all the photographs at once. Each time a visitor moves along a wall, a new view of Seoul enters a limited frame. The act of moving through the space was designed to become the experience of discovering the city.
The photographs were taken by Shin Kyung-sub. Rather than capturing only famous buildings or signature cityscapes, they take in the many layers of Seoul — the everyday and the unusual, scenes that are familiar and beautiful as well as those that may feel uncomfortable.
"We built the maze with the intention of discovering the character of Seoul," Kook said. "From above, you can see the whole maze, but from inside only a limited frame is visible, which makes visitors focus on the photographs." He added: "We did not set out to show only a handsome Seoul. There are good things and bad things, and the mixing of many layers is what Seoul looks like."
The interpretation of the photographs is also left to visitors. Instead of offering a correct way to view the city, the exhibition asks each person to look and judge for themselves. "Citizens may think, 'This isn't Seoul,' and there may be photographs they like and ones they dislike," Kook said. "Having that experience is itself what matters."
Is an Architecture Exhibition Difficult and Dull? A Hall Where Citizens Stay
Rather than explaining architecture, this year's festival focused on making the exhibition itself a spatial experience. Architectural works are presented through models, videos and panels, while visitors are free to move through the space and develop an interest in the pieces.
In a corner set aside for an architecture book fair, visitors can read or lie down and rest. "Some people come and take a nap, and an exhibition hall is a place where you can spend time and simply take a break," Kook said. "We created a space anyone can drop by easily and comfortably."
Citizen participation programs were also prepared so that the experience of architecture does not remain indirect. Because actual buildings cannot be brought into an exhibition hall, there are limits to displaying the works. "You can't exhibit a building as it is, so the most you can do is convey an indirect experience through models, videos and panels," Kook said. "Rather than lining up the works, we designed it so visitors can experience the space itself while examining the pieces." He added: "Through participation programs, we also set aside time for direct experience."
The participation programs running during the festival include Open Office, which takes visitors to the architecture firms behind the award-winning entries; an award-winning works tour led by the architects themselves; and an architecture culture tour of buildings and urban spaces in Seoul. On Oct. 2, a session called Meeting the Architects, in which architects talk with aspiring young architects, is scheduled.
