Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2020

SEOINN DESI­GN – SAE­MOO­NAN CHURCH

Desi­gner	Don­g­Kyu Choi , Eun­seok Lee
Loca­tion	79, Sae­­mu­­nan-ro, Jon­g­­no-gu, Seoul, Korea 03182
Desi­gn Team	Eun Seok Lee, Alex Yoo­cheol Choi, Seun­gyong Jeong
Anno	2019
Pho­to credits	© LIM JUNE YOUNG

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Descri­zio­ne del progetto

Sae­moo­nan Church as a public pla­ce of Loving Neighbors

Esta­bli­shed as the fir­st Korean pro­te­stant church, Sae­moo­nan Church con­struc­ted a new church on Sin­mun­no, Gwan­gh­wa­mun, cele­bra­ting its 132nd anni­ver­sa­ry. The sha­pe resem­bles a mothe­r’s arms stret­ched out toward the sky. At the time of the desi­gn com­pe­ti­tion in 2010, the Korean Chri­stian com­mu­ni­ty had put func­tio­na­li­sm as a top prio­ri­ty stra­te­gy for church con­struc­tion, and many lar­ge chur­ches were sho­wing off their exi­sten­ce on a lar­ge sca­le. Howe­ver, Sae­moo­nan Church pro­po­sed four distinct church con­struc­tion the­mes as basic gui­de­li­nes; ① the histo­ri­ci­ty as the mother church of Korean pro­te­stant chur­ches, ② the sym­bo­li­sm of doors open to hea­ven ③ the spa­tia­li­ty of expres­sing Chri­st as light, and ④ pre­sen­ting a water spa­ce as a mea­ning of bap­ti­sm and har­mo­ny. Hen­ce, we adap­ted the the­mes with Loving God and Loving Nei­gh­bors and inclu­ded them in the desi­gn. Loving God was main­ly por­trayed throu­gh the use and sym­bo­li­sm of the spa­ce, and the aspec­ts of Loving Nei­gh­bors were expres­sed with the public­ness throu­gh the exter­nal appea­ran­ce and lay­out effect of the buil­ding that are revea­led in the city center.
Shed­ding the deco­ra­tions of the spi­re and the gothic ima­ge, which have domi­na­ted the arche­ty­pe of Chri­stian church con­struc­tion for two thou­sand years, seems to be the main value con­tem­po­ra­ry church con­struc­tion has faced. The­re­fo­re, in the con­struc­tion of Sae­moo­nan Church, the con­ven­tio­nal spi­re was repla­ced by a soft cur­ved effect that is open to the sky, and the exces­si­ve orna­men­ts were con­ver­ted into sim­ple and abstract expres­sions. In addi­tion, rather than focu­sing on sho­wing the autho­ri­ty of the church, the love and mer­cy of God were meta­pho­ri­cal­ly expres­sed with the cur­ve of the soft front. Fur­ther­mo­re, instead of crea­ting a solemn spa­tial atmo­sphe­re with the com­mon long cor­ri­dor form, a new perio­dic wor­ship spa­ce was pro­po­sed with a fan-sha­­ped cha­pel pla­ne that encou­ra­ges the dyna­mic par­ti­ci­pa­tion bet­ween believers.
The public con­struc­tion inten­tion of Loving Nei­gh­bors is clear­ly visi­ble throu­ghout the archi­tec­tu­re of Sae­moo­nan Church, and this seems to be an archi­tec­tu­ral assi­gn­ment that 21st cen­tu­ry chur­ches must dee­ply con­si­der. In other words, a public natu­re and a spa­ce mana­ge­ment pro­gram that sup­ports the dai­ly lives and com­fort of citi­zens must exi­st in the church, rather than mass pro­du­cing church archi­tec­tu­res in a sym­bo­lic and rei­fied one-dime­n­­sio­­nal form as a method of enlighten­ment for mis­sio­na­ry work. The yard of Sae­­mu­­nan-ro crea­ted by the hol­low front and bent arch gate, which are church archi­tec­tu­re typo­lo­gies that can­not be found any­whe­re else in the world, is inten­ded to beco­me a prac­ti­cal resting pla­ce of citi­zens by ope­ning the church to nei­gh­bors rather than pur­suing a reve­rent wor­ship spa­ce with a clo­sed natu­re like a mona­ste­ry. The fact that a con­ti­nuous com­mu­ni­ca­tion was plot­ted throu­gh the lob­by towards the Sejong Cen­ter for the Per­for­ming Arts also illu­stra­tes the open­ness of the church. Here, the small cha­pel as well, which will bring back the histo­ry by down­sca­ling the exi­sting brick church, will be used as an acti­ve­ly open cul­tu­ral spa­ce. In Seou­l’s fore­st of offi­ce buil­dings, Sae­moo­nan Church pro­vi­des plen­ti­ful rest to the pac­ked city cen­ter throu­gh its free­ly unfol­ding spa­tial works by ope­ning and emp­ty­ing, rather than reac­ting with a com­mer­cial phi­lo­so­phy of sca­le like the buil­dings of maxi­mum volu­me in the sur­roun­ding. This is how a con­tem­po­ra­ry church expres­ses their love of nei­gh­bors to the city throu­gh publicness.
The trans­pa­rent glass box, inten­ded to seem as if it was disap­pea­ring into the sky beyond the cur­ved wall, not only angles for a mor­pho­lo­gi­cal har­mo­ny that is in con­tra­st to the soft cur­ved wall, but is also an archi­tec­tu­ral stra­te­gy that aims for it to pro­tect the futu­re gene­ra­tions from the con­ge­sted stree­ts and beco­me a bright Edu­ca­tion Hall with a roof­top gar­den. Fur­ther­mo­re, the top floor of the Edu­ca­tion Hall buil­ding and the high alti­tu­de spa­ce of the Cross Tower can beco­me a memo­rial spa­ce open to eve­ry citi­zen, just as the many chur­ches of the world often open their top floor dome to their nei­gh­bors, sin­ce Seoul’s beau­ti­ful down­to­wn pano­ra­ma can be enjoyed to the utmost.

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