Location: Seoul, South Korea

Architects: Wilmotte & Associés

Area: approximately 12,000 m²

Year: 2026

Architecture: Wilmotte & Associés / Gansam Co., Ltd.

Interior Design: Wilmotte & Associés / KUKBO DESIGN

Contractor: SSANGYONG Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.

Supervisor: HanmiGlobal

Design Features: Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul occupies the podium of the 63 Building on Yeouido Island, facing the Han River and Seoul’s financial district. Rather than adding a detached cultural landmark, the project reopens a podium formerly used for conferences, weddings and professional events, inserting exhibition, education, leisure and civic programmes into approximately 12,000 m² of existing structure. Against the tower’s emphatic verticality, the museum forms a horizontal band of light at street level, mediating between the skyscraper, the riverfront and the pedestrian scale.

The transformation begins with subtraction. Portions of the existing steel structure were removed to create continuous, adaptable interiors, with international exhibitions to the west and Korean artistic production to the east. A 1,400 m² double-height platform presents temporary exhibitions drawn from the Centre Pompidou collection, while two eastern levels provide about 1,650 m² for Korean art. Between them, a tall central void acts as more than circulation: it keeps floors, exhibitions and visitors in visual dialogue.

At ground level, the entrance gathers around a large lightwell that draws daylight deep into the building and opens views toward the sculpture garden above. The promenade level connects a multifunctional gathering space, auditorium and double-height cafe suited to education and events. On the fourth floor, a restaurant and private terrace return the visitor’s attention to Seoul’s skyline. The museum is therefore organised as a continuous sequence of viewing, pausing, learning and looking back toward the city.

The 150-metre-long facade gives the renovation its clearest urban presence. Its double skin is assembled from curved laminated-glass modules spanning a full storey. By day, the surface softly reflects the street and sky; after dark, it glows from within as a horizontal box of light beneath the tower. Transparent openings on the second and third floors admit daylight to offices and public concourses, giving depth and variation to an otherwise calm envelope.

Inside, grey limestone, pale terrazzo and curved translucent glass extend the cadence of the facade. The interest lies less in the number of materials than in the way light moves across glass, columns and ceiling edges. The circular opening of the central hall, long views between galleries and softer illumination in the hospitality spaces adjust the pace of perception from city to art and back again. In this way, the arrival of an international institution becomes an opportunity to rewrite the public character of a large existing commercial complex.

Design Team: Founded by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte in 1975, Wilmotte & Associés is headquartered in Nice and maintains a network of studios that includes Paris, Milan, Venice, Seoul and London. Its work spans architecture, urban design, interiors, museography and product design, with a long-standing focus on cultural buildings, hospitality, retail and the transformation of historic structures. Its cultural portfolio includes work at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, spaces associated with the Louvre in Paris, and museums and galleries internationally.

The practice often begins with the existing setting and the scale of use, connecting architecture and interiors through disciplined material choices, controlled light and consistent detailing. Jean-Michel Wilmotte’s approach is particularly attentive to the relationship between contemporary intervention and inherited urban or architectural fabric: new elements need not imitate the old, but should establish continuity through proportion, tactility and use. This cross-scale method allows envelope, exhibition route, furniture and signage to operate as one spatial language.

For Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul, Wilmotte & Associés led the architectural and interior design in collaboration with Korean delivery teams. Gansam Co., Ltd. collaborated on architecture and KUKBO DESIGN on interiors; SSANGYONG Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. served as contractor, with HanmiGlobal as supervisor. The box-of-light concept brings structural subtraction, the curved glass facade, exhibition planning and the public route through the existing podium into a single design operation.