Seoul
Nam June Paik
Museum 

The design of the NJP Art Centre is homage to the oeuvre of the artist, whose work playfully addresses the ongoing digital evolutions and presents interpreted perceptions of the world as perceived by the artist. A flexible museum and exhibition space that allows for experimentation was the chosen strategy for the architectural design.

The NJP Art Centre, located in a hilly park with other public institutions, occupies by filling in the existing valleys of the museum’s park by conceptually spanning a gridded roof structure over the landscape. The appropriated space below the roof – the “petrified topography” - becomes part of the exhibition space of the museum so that the tension between the Cartesian structure and the amorphous topography considerably contributes to the identity of the museum.

The notion of the “matrix” regulates the various aspects of the museum and is embodied in the museum space, the roof structure and the undulating floor, as well as the detailing of the tectonics, resulting in a perfect instrument for exhibiting rather than an object building. Cut-outs in the roof create a relationship to the landscape and manifest the continuity of the topography from the inside to the outside.

The careful manipulation of light plays a very important role, particularly for this museum exhibiting luminous art objects, in articulating the space within the main museum hall: indirect and reflected light not only organises the space but also directs the visitors through it yet does not interfere with the artwork. Characteristic to the museum is its screen facade consisting of several layers of partly printed glass with different degrees of reflection coatings. The façade becomes an instrument for controlling the amount and quality of permeating light.

The NJP museum’s idea is born from the site and rooted in the particular context of the park landscape of Suwon.