Gyeonggi-do Jeongok Prehistory Museum - Korea
[International competition, 2006]

The surrounding area is characterized by the overwhelming natural hilly landscape, which inscribes the horizon lines and juxtaposes the agricultural patches of the fields. Contour lines converging at the ridge of this plane, echo and reveal the existence of a geological substratum of the basalt precipice.
The museum building becomes a mediator among the diverse conditions of the site, while marking a new access to the archaeological park, by laying open the layer of basalt. The zone of intervention marks the divide between ridge/field, up/down and archaeological plateau/alluvial plane. Intertwined in the path system of the archaeological park, the basalt line becomes a promenade between sky and ground, heaven and earth – a new place to contemplate and view. Both the basalt precipice and the found prehistoric artefacts are witnesses to the sediments of the site. The museum conciliates between artefact and raw material, nature of building and nature of basalt precipice, archaeological site and the exhibited objects, authentic site and museological narration, inside and outside. In its spatial relationships, the volume is both an enclosed container and yet oriented to the outside. The slit volume establishes a strong relationship to its immediate context by means of panoramic views and in the associations it evokes. Primal and heavy. It elevates itself above the ground, allowing transparency while the landscape to flows through it and articulates the path leading to the plateau.

Architect: M. Stankovic + T. Jortzick [Marina Stankovic Architekten BDA]