At 61 Bukchon-ro, Jongno-gu, in the heart of Seoul’s traditional hanok cluster, FUTURA SEOUL bridges the grain of heritage architecture with a boldly contemporary exhibition infrastructure. The core is a main hall with roughly 10.8-meter clear height spanning levels 1–2, linked to upper terraces and a rooftop garden. Generous daylighting pulls the outside deep into the interior, so along the circulation you read layered vistas of light, nature, and city all at once.

Designed by WGNB (led by Baek Jonghwan), the project was recognized at the 43rd Seoul Architecture Awards with a Silver (Emerging Architect) citation.

Seen between Bukchon’s tiled roofs, FUTURA SEOUL keeps the neighborhood scale intact on the outside; step inside and the double-height main hall immediately opens your field of view. A skip-floor sequence loosely stitches the levels to create an organic visitor flow, while neutral materials—exposed concrete with timber and metal accents—receive artworks’ color and light with clarity.

Under the operational philosophy “100 Poems,” exhibitions are concretized by the space itself. For each show, lighting levels, circulation, and sightlines are tuned to maximize immersion. Large-scale media/installation works can run close to full scale using the main hall’s volume and built-in technical points, while smaller works find rhythm in courtyards, corridors, and landings that reset the spatial tempo.
 
The rear garden (huwon) captures the Korean idea of borrowed scenery (cha-gyeong), framing rock, trees, and shifting sun through large openings so the outside overlaps naturally with the exhibition inside. From the terraces and rooftop, Bukchon’s roofscape, the city, and distant ridgelines fall into a single frame. In short, FUTURA SEOUL pairs a context-honoring exterior with a future-ready interior, a place where light, nature, and architecture actively complete the exhibition.


 
Now on View:《Anthony McCall Works 1972–2020》

In its first year of operation (2025), FUTURA SEOUL is presenting Anthony McCall’s first solo retrospective in Asia, 《Works 1972–2020》 (May 1–September 7).

Known as a “sculptor of light,” McCall brings a substantial grouping of Solid Light works. The high-volume main hall enables near full-scale presentation of vertical light pieces, and—true to the retrospective format—the show spans from early performance/film to sound and archival components.

“Time and space sculpted by light”—when McCall’s work meets FUTURA SEOUL’s volume, the visit becomes an entry into light itself. How the architecture receives the artwork is a key point of experience.

FUTURA SEOUL demonstrates—within Seoul’s traditional context and with contemporary sensibility—that architecture can make the exhibition. It preserves Bukchon’s silhouette while absorbing the volume and density required by today’s media and installation art—why some of the city’s most “spectrum-rich” exhibition experiences are possible here, right now.
 
 

Visitor Info
 
Venue: FUTURA SEOUL, 61 Bukchon-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul (03052) (futuraseoul.world)
Current Exhibition:《Anthony McCall: Works 1972–2020》(2025.05.01–09.07) (futuraseoul.world)
Spatial Highlights: approx. 10.8 m clear-height main hall / terraces & rooftop garden / daylight-driven exhibition lighting (Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea Herald)
Key Concept: “100 Poems” — a curatorial philosophy that treats each exhibition as a poem realized through space (futuraseoul.world)