Sinaru is located along the Incheon Open Port Historic and Cultural Street, an area where historic buildings, heritage sites, and museums preserve more than 130 years of history.
The opening of Incheon Port marked a turning point in Korea’s transition toward a modern nation. It was both a gateway through which new cultures and experiences entered the country and a point of departure from which Korean culture began to reach the wider world.
At the time, the harbor was a place of departure for merchants setting out toward unfamiliar lands with ambitious dreams. For travelers, it was a threshold where they first encountered new cultures and imagined worlds. We wanted to bring the harbor’s sense of movement, transition, anticipation, and excitement into a contemporary spatial experience.
From the exterior, the pilotis immediately draws the eye. Evoking both a passage leading toward an old harbor and the entrance to an ornate ticket office, it naturally invites passersby to pause. As visitors pass through this entrance, they leave the everyday street behind and step into the world of Sinaru, as if crossing through time.
The first floor was designed around the motif of a ticket office from the Open Port era. After placing their order, visitors open a door fitted with a handle shaped like a ship’s wheel, marking the beginning of their journey through the space.
Maritime maps, booklets, and telescopes invite them to imagine their destination before they open a concealed door and continue into the next space.
Beyond the door, a staircase serves as a transitional space between land and sea. Lighting that flows along the walls like rippling waves evokes the sensation of sailing across the water, naturally guiding visitors toward the second floor.
Upon reaching the second floor, visitors are greeted by a large, refined vessel emerging from a mist-covered harbor.
To create the impression of a monumental vessel within the limited interior space, only one quarter of the hull was physically constructed. The building’s existing columns were incorporated as structural elements of the ship, while mirrors installed along two adjoining walls visually complete the partial hull, making it appear as a single, fully formed vessel.
As the hull and the surrounding space are repeated in the mirrors, they create a sense of depth that extends beyond the physical limitations of the interior. Although visitors remain inside, they encounter a surreal scene that feels as if they are standing in the middle of an endlessly expanding harbor.
The ship’s sail is composed of countless sheets of paper symbolizing people’s stories. Each sheet carries traces of different cultures, memories, and journeys. Beneath this monumental sail, visitors can enjoy a dining experience while embarking on a new journey of their own.
Before boarding the ship, visitors encounter a small room inspired by the kind of space where travelers once gathered information and studied their destinations before departure. From within the room, they can look out at the docked ship, imagine the journey ahead, and await the moment of departure.
A small ferryboat is docked in front of the larger vessel. Reflected endlessly in the mirrors installed on both walls, it creates the impression of a pier lined with an infinite succession of boats. This space most symbolically captures the essence of a harbor, where movement and anchorage, departure and pause coexist.
For some, the harbor was a point of departure toward a new world; for others, it was a place of arrival where they first encountered an unfamiliar culture.
Sinaru is not a literal recreation of the Open Port era. In an age when almost anything can be accessed instantly through the internet and digital images, we wanted to create a different kind of journey—one that encourages visitors to move through the space, take their time, and gradually discover new scenes. With this in mind, we established the harbor, where ships once arrived and departed, as the central concept of the project. The colors, atmosphere, and intricate details of the Open Port era are woven throughout the space, yet reinterpreted to offer contemporary visitors a new and surreal experience.
Rather than expressing the meaning of the harbor through a single scene, Sinaru unfolds it as a multidimensional experience encountered while moving through a sequence of spaces. At this intersection of past and present, reality and imagination, departure and pause, we hope visitors can slowly rediscover the feeling of setting out on a journey.
