A new home for South Korea’s energy giant ST International is nearing completion in Seoul, adding to the city’s reputation as an emerging art capital. The combination museum and corporate headquarters heralds a new vogue museum building in pronounced geometric form.

Herzog & de Meuron are behind the new SongEun Art Space that will double as an exhibition space for the 32-year-old foundation and the official home of the Korean conglomerate formerly known as Samtan. The Art Space has held dedicated space inside one of ST-owned properties since its inception in 2002. 

The 8,000-square-meter new building forms a perfect right angle at the intersection of two busy main thoroughfares in Seoul’s Chung Dam district, its simple geometry serving as a complement to the optic new flagship for fashion house Juun.J that opened nearby in September 2019. 

Wood-grained concrete forms an uneven 11-story scalene above-ground envelope that conceals the foundation’s subterranean home separated internally by a curved parking ramp integrated to reveal the building’s lobby and main entrance to visitors of the art spaces five floors below.

The South Korean capital region is home to more than 100 different art museums and has seen an influx in commercial galleries as well as corporate collections lately, the latter having recently been under scrutiny for their inability to decentralize art collections that might otherwise be more valuable in the state’s hands.

Herzog & de Meuron will also curate one of the museum’s two opening exhibitions once the SongEun officially opens in September.