In a statement on the practice’s website, co-founder Jacques Herzog said: ‘What is an open storage? Or better, what is not an open storage? An open storage is not a museum, not a shopping mall, nor a fun palace, where there is a mass movement of people.
The Basel-based firm was selected ahead of London’s Foster + Partners, 3XN from Copenhagen, MVRDV of Rotterdam, local firm Mass Studies and others to win the prestigious commission with a concept described by the judges as a ‘new model of a storage museum’.
In a statement, the contest organiser, Project Go, said: ‘After intensive discussions, the jury selected the scheme by Herzog & de Meuron as the winner. The winning proposal captures the site and its surrounding contexts both conceptually and physically in a compelling, sculptural, yet simply and elegantly orchestrated geometric form.
‘It suggests a new model of a storage museum, distinguished from conventional art museums in the way it allows visitors to discover the art objects archived in carefully classified and curated climatic zones as they move gradually through the spaces.’
Some 850 local citizens attended the final presentations by the shortlisted teams. The Seoripul Open Storage facility will house artworks and artefacts from three major museums in Seoul when it opens the capital city’s Seocho-Dong district.
‘It is a different kind of institution and therefore also needs a different kind of architecture. An open storage is a place where knowledge and culture exist in a very condensed form. Rather than fully expose everything like cigars in a humidor or trophy wines in a liquor store, they are places which should be enigmatic, mysterious, and raise curiosity.’
The contest win comes two decades after Herzog & de Meuron completed the publicly accessible Schaulager art storage centre in Basel.
Judges praised Foster + Partners’ scheme for its ‘meticulously crafted and composed nature’ and its ‘memorable interior experience’ created through both natural and artificial lighting but ultimately awarded the top prize to Herzog & de Meuron.
Bringing together collections from the Seoul Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of History and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, the facility will be constructed on Myeongdal Road near to the Seoripul Performance Art Centre on the eastern border of Seoripul Park.
The Swiss studio’s winning concept will deliver a ‘dynamic civic space for Seoul residents and global visitors’ featuring an energy-producing translucent main building envelope, which opens up to the public in four directions at ground level and includes a series of gardens, cafés and restaurants.
The winning scheme has been designed to achieve carbon neutrality within a 50-year lifespan and will harness high recycled content concrete, passive strategies, a geothermal heat pump linked and photovoltaic elements on its roof and zigzag façades.
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