Detail of the project ed. 2024

yeongjong-do-onnuri-church / France

Design­er CLAIRE SHIN
Loca­tion 49 Unnam-ro, Unnam-dong, Jung-gu, Incheon, South Korea
Nation France
Design Team

Team lead­ers :
Claire SHIN and Tchely SHIN Hyung-Chul.
Design­ers : Javier Gar­cia Gonzales,Taewoo HA
Con­sult­ing : Seung Yeul CHOI
Year 2023
Pho­to credits

com­po YJD A3 paysage1 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage2 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage3 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage4 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage5 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage6 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage7 pho­to KIM YongKwan
com­po YJD A3 paysage8 pho­to shinslab architecture
com­po YJD A3 paysage9 pho­to shinslab architecture
com­po YJD A3 paysage10 pho­to KIM YongKwan

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

The Yeongjong­do Onnuri Church near Seoul, South Korea, fus­es reli­gious sym­bol­ism with sus­tain­able design. Inspired by Noah’s Ark, the church incor­po­rates recy­cled steel from dis­man­tled ships, with the point­ed bow echo­ing the bib­li­cal ves­sel. This project cham­pi­ons upcy­cling, show­cas­ing the poten­tial of repur­posed mate­ri­als. Frag­ment­ed sec­tions of the ship’s hull become inte­gral parts of the church’s struc­ture, while the steel’s inher­ent strength and beau­ty are empha­sized in its curved forms.

The con­cept orig­i­nat­ed in 2016 and aims to unlock the archi­tec­tur­al poten­tial of decom­mis­sioned ships, pro­mot­ing eco-con­s­cious con­struc­tion. This approach finds inspi­ra­tion in move­ments like Mar­cel Ducham­p’s “Ready­mades,” which chal­lenged tra­di­tion­al notions of art by giv­ing new mean­ing to every­day objects.

The Yeongjong­do Church embod­ies a phi­los­o­phy that con­sid­ers our envi­ron­men­tal impact. The word “oikos,” mean­ing “house,” is the root of both “ecol­o­gy” and “econ­o­my,” high­light­ing the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of these con­cerns in mod­ern architecture.

Beyond mere recy­cling, the church rep­re­sents cre­ative trans­for­ma­tion. The frag­ment­ed design reflects the ship’s decon­struc­tion, with strate­gic cutouts cre­at­ing func­tion­al spaces. The weath­ered steel adds a unique char­ac­ter, imbued with his­to­ry and a sense of authen­tic­i­ty. Upcy­cling ele­vates the mate­r­i­al, trans­form­ing it into some­thing poet­ic and beautiful.

The Yeongjong­do Onnuri Church is a tes­ta­ment to col­lab­o­ra­tion, with each project refin­ing the upcy­cling prin­ci­ple. The goal is to cre­ate sus­tain­able and aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing archi­tec­ture through eco­log­i­cal and eco­nom­i­cal means.

Explana­to­ry report of the project
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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