The installation by the winners of this year’s MoMA Young Architects Program in Seoul has just been revealed. Shin Hyung-Chul’s Shinslab Architecture has launched the office’s spatial proposal for the coveted honour in one of the South Korean capital’s most important cultural institutions.
The structure, created in collaboration with the Seoul outpost of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) and entitled ‘Temp’L’, is cleverly designed from the recycled steel parts of an old ship.
Flagging up the beauty – and potential – of recycling, the piece also illustrates its creator’s fascination with vessels. Having spent his childhood in Europe, Shin was always inspired by large ships that appear to float ‘in and out of Venice’s exquisite buildings’. The architect took those images and combined them with Le Corbusier’s modernist teachings, that often drew parallels between modern architecture and ocean liners.
At the same time, the piece also represents industrialisation, with the ship as one of the 20th century’s largest structures and symbols of power and technology.
Inside, surfaces are rusty and rough, contrasted by the overall structure’s smooth, curved geometries, that hint to the hull of a ship. Conceived as an outdoor pavilion, featuring seating and planning, the installation will serve as a resting area for the museum’s visitors.
Offering an opportunity to young architecture offices to showcase their work to an international audience, MoMA’s Young Architects Program operates in Italy, Turkey, Chile and South Korea; 2016 is its third year in Seoul and its 17th worldwide edition. Temp’L will be on show in the museum courtyard of MMCA, Seoul until 3 October.
The installation is created out of the recycled parts of an old ship, a partial response to Shinslab director Shin Hyung-Chul’s fascination with the vessels and waterways of Venice.
The piece, explain the architects, combines the beauty of recycling, the power of industrialisation and the modernist teachings of Le Corbusier.
The smooth and curvy structure’s interiors are a combination of rough and rusty surfaces. The structure will serve as a pavilion, where the museum’s visitors can rest.
INFORMATION
Temp’L will be on view at MMCA Seoul until 6 October. For more information, visit MoMA's website.
ADDRESS
MMCA
30 Samcheong-ro, Sogyeok-dong,
Jongno-gu, Seoul 03062
-
Willy Chavarria: ‘We’re still so stuck in fashion‘s old guard’As part of the August 2025 ‘Made in America’ issue of Wallpaper*, we invited three creative powerhouses to comment on the state of the States. Here, award-winning American fashion designer Willy Chavarria speaks on creative resilience, uniting with activist groups, and shaking up fashion’s old guard
-
Six Indian artists reframe the ladies compartment of a Mumbai local trainAn exhibition by Method (India) at Galerie Melike Bilir in Hamburg explores a gendered space
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Fountainhead – a shining example of Usonian design – is now on the marketThis quintessential Wright home – built in a vibrant mid-century neighbourhood – was named after a novel inspired by the architect
-
On Jeju Island, South Korea, a cabin stay with unobstructed views of forest and skyEgattoc is a new hospitality complex by architect Byoung Cho, who wanted to create an experience where guests ‘can see the forest while they take a shower’
-
Join our tour of Taikaka House, a slice of New Zealand in SeoulTaikaka House, meaning ‘heart-wood’ in Māori, is a fin-clad, art-filled sanctuary, designed by Nicholas Burns
-
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024: meet the practicesIn the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest guide to exciting, emerging practices from around the world, 20 young studios show off their projects and passion
-
Studio Heech transforms a Seoul home, nodding to Pierre Chareau’s Maison De VerreYoung South Korean practice Studio Heech joins the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024, our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios
-
Architect Byoung Cho on nature, imperfection and interconnectednessSouth Korean architect Byoung Cho’s characterful projects celebrate the quirks of nature and the interconnectedness of all things
-
2023 Seoul Biennale of architecture invites visitors to step into the outdoorsSeoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2023 has launched in the South Korean capital, running themes around nature and land through the lens of urbanism
-
Tadao Ando’s ‘Space of Light’, a meditation pavilion, opens in South KoreaTadao Ando’s ‘Space of Light’ pavilion opens at Museum SAN in South Korea
-
Seosaeng House is a holiday home designed to capture the rising sunSeosaeng House, Studio Weave’s first project in South Korea, is a clifftop holiday home perfectly designed to capture a new day dawning over the East Sea
