SOUR + Seoinn Design Group win 4th Prize at the international design competition for their Climate-Resiliant Design for the Geomdan Museum Library Cultural Complex in Incheon, South Korea.
By the team at SOUR Design Studio
A Climate-Resiliant Design Proposal
Today we are living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Climate and energy crises, the global economic downturn, and the COVID-19 pandemic urge us architects to re-evaluate our priorities and methods in the generation of signature architecture.
High-tech dependent, Starchitect-led visions for architectural landmarks are no longer viable nor sustainable. Any and all proposals for the built environment need to present purposefully viable solutions that address issues around energy usage, material waste, supply chain inefficiencies, and carbon footprint.
SOUR believes the Geomdan’s Museum and Library Cultural Complex Project is a great opportunity to reform landmark aesthetics to be informed by climate resilience and to rediscover low-tech strategies to generate sustainable architecture. While this proposal is about connecting and integrating the urban space and the landscape on a morphological level, it also brings forward historically proven yet overlooked methods of construction for energy endurance and climate resiliency.
The proposal therefore becomes fully immersed in history, nature and “archeology” of architecture. What better fit to create an archeological park, in the form of an archeological museum and a library that will become a visual and archival complex for the region and a unique public building.
Related: Building Circular Cities: ‘Designing with Disaster’
Press Release
SOUR + Seoinn Design Group win 4th Prize at the International Design Competition for Geomdan Museum Library Cultural Complex
New York, United States, 2023-04-18
SOUR is excited to be among the winners of the international architectural competition for the new Geomdan Museum Library Cultural Complex (GMLCC) in Incheon, South Korea (2023).
The Metropolitan City of Incheon, together with the Housing and City Development Corporation, organized an international competition for the new Geomdan Museum Library Cultural Complex. Among 75 entries from around the world that responded to the open call, SOUR, in collaboration with Seoinn Design Group, was selected among the Final 5 to present for the second stage of evaluations in front of an international jury.
The jury decision was announced by the Metropolitan City of Incheon, together with its Housing and City Development Corporation, during the ceremony at the Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning in Incheon, South Korea. The design team led by SOUR was awarded 4th Prize.
The ambition of the proposal was to urge architects to a necessary paradigm shift in the making of landmark architecture, where the design criteria and form-making should be driven by the energy endurance and climate resiliency.
The proposal envisages a cultural, eco-friendly community landmark housing a futuristic Library and indoor-outdoor Museum, working together to become Geomdan’s new Archeology Park: a place for nature & people to thrive and explore, and where form follows sustainability measures and environmentally responsible design.
“Climate and energy crises, the global economic downturn, and the COVID-19 pandemic urge us architects to re-evaluate our priorities and methods in the generation of signature architecture. Any and all proposals for the built environment need to present purposefully viable solutions that address issues around energy usage, material waste, supply chain inefficiencies, and carbon footprint.
We, therefore had two main questions with the design of this building: How might we use low-tech strategies for the (re)discovery of sustainable landmark architecture? And how might we evolve beyond energy-intensive technologies and high-cost construction methods to generate scalable solutions in the built environment?
We believe that a landmark project such as a new library and museum complex represents a great opportunity to reform landmark aesthetics to be informed by climate resilience and to rediscover low-tech strategies to generate truly sustainable architecture, and I hope we have a glimpse of what this shift can look like here.”
Inanc Eray, Partner and Creative Director at SOUR
The new Geomdan Museum Library Culture complex will help kick-start the transformation of one of Incheon’s most important brownfield sites, which will eventually become home to 180,000 residents.
Project Info
Project: GEOMDAN’S MUSEUM LIBRARY CULTURAL COMPLEX
Typology: Cultural Venue, Museum, Library, Park
Location: Incheon, South Korea
Date: 2023
Area: 27,768 m2
Client: Incheon Housing and City Development Corporation, Incheon Metropolitan City
Project Credits
Architects: SOUR Studio + Seoinn Design Group
Design: Inanc Eray with Dong Kyu Choi
Design Team: Pinar Guvenc, Alex Yoocheol Choi, Marianne de Zeeuw, Mariana Evangelista, Merve Guven, Pinar Gursoy, Merve Akbay, Irem Gocmenoglu, Derin Sahin, Nicholas Doghlass, Gamze Gurgenc
For more information click here.
To see all winning entries, visit this link.
About SOUR
SOUR is an international award-winning architecture and design studio with the mission of addressing social and urban problems through sustainable, adaptive, and inclusive design processes. While the word SOUR is a play on the words ‘social’ and ‘urban’, the meaning describes the studio’s attitude.
Like the process of sourdough making, the studio believes in taking the time to research, synthesize, and ideate in order to generate data-inspired and purposeful design solutions. The world has spent enough time sugar-coating, and it’s time to confront, get real, and be SOUR.