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The Government of the Republic of Korea decided to create a National Museum,
in Seoul, consecrated to the five thousand year cultural and historical
heritage of all the Korean people. An international architectural competition,
open to architects of the entire world, was launched in December 1994, to
select the design for this prestigious building. Unprecedented in Korea,
this procedure, organised in conformity with the UNESCO/UIA Recommendation
concerning international competitions in architecture and town planning,
received the approval of the International Union of Architects (UIA).
This competition, international, open and anonymous was run in two phases:
ideas and basic plan competitions. The programme, which was established
by the Korean Institute of Architects (KIA), concerned the design of a museum
complex, of a total surface of 108 800 m2 set in the park of the Yong San
family. It included four departments devoted respectively to: history, archaeology,
arts and crafts, East Asian Arts.
The competition met with wide success amongst the architects of the world.
854 registrations from 59 countries were registered by the organisers and
341 projects were submitted. The competitors, amongst whom were many well
known professionals, represented 46 countries, including Korea (78), France
(26), Italy (23), United States of America (19), Switzerland (16), United
Kingdom (18), Japan (19), Germany (15), Hong Kong (11) and Mexico (17) etc.
The jury met to examine the projects submitted for the first phase, from
12 to 16 June 1995, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. The members
of this jury were: Wilhelm Kücker (architect
- Germany), UIA representative, President of the jury, Kwang-No Lee, (architect
- Korea), Vice -President of the jury, Mrs. Gae Aulenti (architect - Italy),
Henri E. Ciriani (architect - France), Randall Vosbeck (architect - USA),
Yang -Mo Chung (Director of the National Museum of Korea) and Hi-Jun Yu
(architect - Korea). John Davidson (architect - Australia) and Suk-Woong
Chang (architect - Korea) were present at the deliberations as deputy members.
Having examined the reports of the technical commission, the jury proceeded
, by successive elimination, to select 10 projects. The jury invited the
authors of the five first projects to participate in the second phase.
The same jury met again, from 16 to 19 October 1995. After examining the
new reports from the technical commission, the jury deliberated and made
the final selection from which the winner was chosen. Anonymity was then
lifted to reveal the identity of all the competitors.
The following five teams, selected at the end of the first phase, were awarded special mentions:
In conformity with the competition regulations, the ten teams selected from the first phase each received a prize of 50 000 US$. A total of 130 000 US$ was awarded to the five winners of the second phase (1st prize 50 000 US$, 2nd prize: 30 000 US$, 3rd prize 20 000, 4th 20 000 US$ and 5th prize 10 000 US$). The winning team will be commissioned to realise the museum.
&laqno; The winning project has a strong and carefully articulated presence
with an honest representation of a very large and complex programme, finely
layered to create a building with a scale appropriate to the site.»
&laqno; It is clearly recognisable as a major public building of national
importance, reinforced by the direct functional layout of the interior.»
&laqno; The jury is delighted to award the first prize to a proposal of
such outstanding quality, and it is confident that this concept, after further
development with client and users, will result in a museum that will be
recognised as one of the world's great institutions.»
All the projects submitted for the competition will be exhibited at the
National Museum of Korea, in Seoul, from 6 to 26 November 1995. A publication
will be produced by the organisers of the competition.
Information:
Construction Bureau - The National Museum of Korea
1, Sejong-ro, Chongro-ku
110-050 Seoul (Republic of Korea)
Tel: (82.2) 722 29 55 - Fax: (82.2) 739 00 75