[GLOBAL ECONOMIC TIMES]  ‘Songhyeon-dong National Cultural Facility (tentative name Lee Kun-hee Donation Center)’ in Jongno-gu, Seoul, which will store and exhibit the so-called ‘Lee Kun-hee Collection’, including cultural properties and artworks owned by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, is located at ‘Songhyeon (松峴, Pine Hill)’ It is constructed as a building symbolizing a pine tree, in line with the local name. With the opening of the Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall, Jongno-gu is expected to become Korea's largest museum and art gallery cluster.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 25th that it, together with the Korean Institute of Architects, selected Jejehap Architect's 'Restoration of Time' as the final winner of the international design contest for the construction of the 'Songhyeon-dong National Cultural Facility' in Songhyeon Cultural Park in Jongno-gu. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism explained, “This work received high praise for showing the ideological spirit of ‘Koreanness’ in a variety of ways by symbolically connecting it with pine trees.”

‘Recovery of Time’ is comprised of two floors underground and three floors above ground. It is a form of arranging five permanent exhibition spaces and one special exhibition space in three buildings using a courtyard pattern with an empty center, similar to that seen in traditional architecture such as Gyeongbokgung Palace. Its characteristic feature is that the courtyard pattern allows visitors to reconnect with nature in an open space while moving between exhibition halls.

The exterior uses domestically grown pine trees to find a link between the pine hill in our memories and Songhyeon Cultural Park today, and also symbolizes the history of our country, which has endured through the charred exterior to protect today against eventful crises. Design implementation will begin in November of this year, and construction is scheduled to begin in December next year. The target opening date is 2028.

The National Cultural Facility in Songhyeon-dong is scheduled to exhibit and store the so-called Lee Kun-hee Collection, so it has been called the ‘Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall’. In 2021, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and other bereaved family members donated 11,023 items and 23,000 items from the late Chairman's personal collection collected during his lifetime to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Korea. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “The ‘Songhyeon-dong National Cultural Facility’ is still a tentative name, and the official name will be decided again upon opening.”

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism explained that 67 teams from home and abroad participated in the design contest, and the judges unanimously selected ‘Recovery of Time’. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will display the first to fifth place winning works, including ‘Recovery of Time’, at the Songhyeon-dong construction site from the 1st to the 28th of next month and make them public on the design contest website.

Along with the national cultural facilities, the Songhyeon Cultural Park site will also be developed in earnest. The Songhyeon-dong site is three times the size of Seoul Plaza (37,141㎡) and is the largest single site in downtown Seoul. The Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall will be built on a 9,787㎡ site with a total project cost of 107.8 billion won.

The Songhyeon-dong site was originally the home of Kim Seok-jin, a relative of the late Joseon king and former Prime Minister. After he committed suicide in 1910 as a sign of resistance against Japanese imperialism during the reign of the king, the pro-Japanese brothers Yoon Deok-yeong and Yoon Taek-yeong took over the site, and in the 1920s, it was used as the residence of Japan's Joseon Siksan Bank. Done.

After liberation, it was confiscated and used as lodging for the U.S. Embassy in Korea. Afterwards, ownership was transferred to Korea, and the land remained vacant ever since. In 1997, Samsung Life Insurance took over from the then-owner, the Ministry of National Defense, and attempted to build an art museum, but the attempt fell through. Korean Air also purchased it in 2008 with the intention of building a Hanok hotel, but failed due to various regulations, and became owned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2021.

Currently, the city of Seoul and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism are jointly developing the Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced in November 2021, “The site in Songhyeon-dong is suitable for the construction of the Lee Kun-hee Donation Center in various aspects such as politics, economy, culture and art.” When the Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall is completed, the Jongno-gu area centered on Songhyeon-dong is expected to become Korea's representative museum and art gallery cluster. Songhyeon Cultural Park is connected to Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art to the west, Bukchon Hanok Village to the north, Changdeokgung Palace and the Seoul Craft Museum to the east, and Insa-dong to the south.