There seems to be a museum for almost everything—but until recently, not audio equipment. Kengo Kuma, the Japanese architect with a penchant for the organic, realized this when designing the Audeum, a new museum founded by acoustician Michael Chung and located outside the din of Seoul that promises to provide a “special healing and sensory experience” centered on sound. While the healing premise may seem rather out-there, Kuma nailed down the concept by highlighting the capacity of architecture and materials to stimulate all the senses, even beyond sound. The result is one of the year’s most arresting cultural projects.
Kuma’s vision starts outside, where a glistening facade composed of randomly overlapping aluminum louvers evokes a sweeping forest of organ pipes. As one moves farther in, senses gradually awaken. Sunlight streaming through the pipes casts a dazzling interplay of light and shadow inside a canyon-like grand perron under the building, clad in rough natural stone. They transition into softer materials like Alaska cypress, noted for its minty aroma, that forms a “wood drape” backdropping an array of vintage audio equipment. Expect to see some in the inaugural show, “Jung Eum: In Search of Sound,” which explores the hunt for “good sound reproduction” through rarities like Edison phonographs to the Western Electric loudspeaker.
A central gallery, cosseted in creamy fabric to heavenly effect, caps off an experience meant to reignite the spirit. “Going forward, we will not be healed solely by the visual,” Kuma said in a video. “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 the sense of hearing.”
