A port city on the South Chinese Sea, Yeosu is a tourist
destination owing to the landscape of the coast, the islands
and the city itself, which has grown considerably recently,
also owing to EXPO 2012. A symbol of young contemporary
architecture in South Korea, the expansion of the Hansen
Museum had to take into account the nature of its location,
on a hill, and relate to the existing, binding building of the
former missionary hospital completed in 1927. Simple
parallelepipeds in grey concrete match the early twentieth
century building that has just two floors without exceeding
it in height. Dug into the hill, in the interior and exterior the
museum is on various levels that are connected by a system
of itineraries, squares and courtyards that are either paved
or green. The project is based on the repetition of few
essential elements, which disguise the complicated layout of
the exhibition spaces: designed with the EBE 65 system in
painted galvanised steel, by suggesting the idea of continuity
between the interior and exterior, and bringing natural light to
the museum, together with the skylights in the roof, the deep
longitudinal cuts play a fundamental role in the composition
of the smooth, continuous vertical planes.