soft architecture lab's wood museum is rooted within scenic korean forest

in order to completely comprehend soft architecture lab’s vision for the award-winning mokyeonri wood museum — supported by korea forest service and organized by incheon metropolitan city — one must elaborate on the project’s namesake. mokyeonri, meaning ‘a harmony between trees from different roots’, identifies architecture as a series of spatial experiences, sensing diverse attributes of wood.

the mokyeonri wood museum enables visitors to experience wood through an atypical exhibition

previously, timber structures commissioned by korea forest service have been unsuccessful in attracting visitors to wood museums, as the structures have been somewhat generic. in an attempt to spruce-up its image, soft architecture lab‘s mokyeonri wood museum enables visitors to experience wood through an atypical exhibition. accordingly, the design itself creates a spatial experience where one can uses their sense of smell, sight, hearing and touch within the architectural ambience, while harmonizing with the surrounding forest.

the wood museum harmonizes with its botanic surroundings

the design strategy is to create a symbolization of arboretum in the incheon grand park. architectural abstractions are prominent within this project, where sunlight between leaves constantly shift, depending on the direction of the wind via the ambience wall (the interactive wood apparatus). this allows visitors to have a multi-sensory experience of wood in diverse architectural levels, reflecting the variations of the forest hour by hour. 

mokyeonri: kinteic wood museum
video © softarchitecturelab

the design strategy is to create a symbolization of arboretum in the incheon grand park

the panoramic view of the north side

main gate where the shadow can be differently shaped depending on seasonal solar altitude

the void space in the hall embraces the ceiling with japanese cypress bars

the inner and outer space are communicated via the parameter to make ambience wall moving

outdoor deck composed of silhouette and shadow of the wooden wall

interior shadows of the wall

night view of the southernmost side

details of the kinetic wall with consecutive merbau pieces that moves with twisting mechanism

details of the ambience wall at the main gate showing its scale and spatiality

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynn chaya | designboom