Dynamic Relaxation, Installation, Winning Project at SOMA Invited Competition, Seoul, Korea, 2015

SOMA (Seoul Olympic Museum of Art) is, along with its 95,940㎡ size of Sculpture Park located in the southeast of Seoul, is a resting place for public created to celebrate the fruits of Seoul Olympic. SOMA planed the outdoor installation project, which is called ‘Project S’ this year. They opened the invited design competition for this, with inviting young architects and artists. HG-Architecture was invited to the competition and won at the final stage last May.

Seoul Olympic Park is a dynamic place for people, who enjoy walking and light exercises in the surrounding community. Meanwhile, Seoul Olympic Park is a place of relaxation for people who enjoy appreciating art and resting around the lake. Dynamic Relaxation is the public art for all which provides experiences of dynamics and relaxations at the same time.

Dynamic Relaxation is simply lying on the top of hill behind the museum. It is a topological surface which invites people and opens to the outside surrounded by nature. Also, the geometry of space reflects the topography of park landscape and the continuous curvature, which are the site-specific characters of park. It is a not only aesthetic sculpture but also a multi-purpose space for resting and climbing, hanging, exercising for everyone.

The basic geometry started from a trefoil knot, which consists of three Möbius Strips between three strands of pipe. The pipes were twisted accurately and structured by triangular sections with transforming sizes and angles along the base geometry. All structures were modularized by 21 components and each one was fabricated and welded at factory. The pre-assembled modules were finally assembled at site for two days, and then total 573m lengths of rope were installed to create the topological space. Finally, 367 triangular pieces of PVC vinyl were attached to the rope to provide UV protection under the structure. The official exhibition of Dynamic Relaxation extends to October, but it will stay at the site with people and nature permanently.

Commissioned by SOMA

Art Collaboration : Byeong-Sam Jeon

Photo Credit : All Photos © Kyungsub Shin