Gana Art Center
Seoul, Corée du Sud
GANA ART GALLERY
Architect: WILMOTTE & ASSOCIÉS
Local architect: TOTAL DESIGN
3 024 sqm
1998
Construction of a contemporary art gallery, interior design and museography.
Pyung Chang Dong is a rather residential, hilly area on the outskirts of Seoul. Gana Gallery has chosen this exceptionally well exposed site, on a very steep slope, to set up in a new building, a place entirely dedicated to contemporary art, but which will make extensive references to the Korean artistic past.
The art centre is developed on three main levels in two distinct cores which form the stage wall of the open-air theatre on one side, and on the other side run along the bleachers via an aerial walkway. The first entity is open to the public, the second is private. The concern to make the best use of the natural slope of the land and the magnificent view available on the site was constant in the process of developing the project.
The architectural approach chosen contrasts the lightness of the reception and restaurant areas, which are very glazed and warm thanks to the use of tropical wood sunshades, with the massive and perennial aspect of the art exhibition areas, which are strongly marked in space and treated as monolithic blocks of white Italian bush-hammered stone, the colour of which blends particularly well with the Korean landscape and light. These sharp-edged blocks are lifted off the ground and appear to be placed on a bed of thin wooden lines.
