Kengo Kuma and Associates has inaugurated what could be this year’s most interesting new cultural project, the new Audeum (or Audio Museum) in Seoul, South Korea, following a two-year construction period. 

The world’s first museum experience dedicated to sound is approximately 2.4 million square feet and supports sensory healing while offering visitors a unique experience of both its architecture and exhibitions in a design that's meant to evoke the forest canopy surroundings it appears to be a metallic natural outgrowth of.

The design team describes it as a "place where you can not only see but also experience sound firsthand. [...] it is not just a place to listen to sound; it is an architectural instrument that returns humans to a natural state, allowing them to experience the five senses of the body."

The idea for its establishment can be credited to Korean acoustics equipment specialist Michael Chung. Removed from the activity of central Seoul, it stands as an "architectural instrument" that will augment a return to nature for weary urban dwellers. 

As Kuma suggests in the promotional video below, the experience begins outside the museum, where a layer of overlapping aluminum louvers extends from the facade. This creates an interplay of shadows, giving visitors respite to ground themselves before entering brightly lit interior spaces composed of equally naturalistic "wood drapes."

Visitors will enter through a "valley"-like grand perron that descends under the building while passing by a wall made from rough-finished natural stone. From there, the transition into a softer environment is instigated by the smell of special Alaska cypress wall panels installed in the lobby's atrium. Another gallery clad in fabric wall finishes highlights the material's capacity to transmute both light and sound. A large, double-height aperture facing the city caps the seven-story design, completing an experience that reignites the spirit. 

"Going forward, we will not be healed solely by the visual," the architect said finally. "Sound will play a critical role in our healing and recovery from various sources of modern-day stress. Audeum will symbolize a new era of healing through a sense of hearing."