Leap's

There’s no harbor nearby, but a ship’s broken bow has been washed up in the courtyard of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in central Seoul since last Wednesday.

The space, a new installation by young Korean architect Shin Hyung-chul, is this year’s winning entry to the Korean edition of the Young Architects Program (YAP), co-hosted by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Shin’s installation, titled “Temp’L,” will serve as a shady spot for visitors to MMCA for the following three months.

Last summer’s winning project was “Roof Sentiment” by architects, Lee Chi-hoon and Kang Ye-rin, which used reeds to create a similarly cool place to rest.


The front of Shin’s “Temp’L,” features a garden inside the hull of an old ship. [MMCA]
Since 2014, Hyundai Card and MMCA have been co-hosting the Korean edition of MoMA’s annual competition.

YAP began in 1998 to “offer selected young designers and architects the opportunity to prepare and present publicly temporary architectural solutions for a specific outdoor site.”

The theme for the Korean edition has been “Shade, Seating and Water.”

The title of Shin’s work is a portmanteau of “temporary” and “temple.” As the name suggests, the inside of the bow has been turned into a small garden that resembles an old temple.

“I left the exterior of the vessel as it is but painted the inside white and laid out a garden,” said Shin during a press conference on July 5 at the MMCA. “When it was completed, it looked like an old temple, so that’s why I chose the name.”

According to the architect, he used an old ship as the main material to raise awareness about the serious environmental impact of dismantling a ship.

Instead of sitting down at his desk drawing blueprints, Shin said his process consisted of searching for abandoned ships.

By using a bow that had been dismantled in a more eco-friendly way than usual, Shin said he wanted to send a message across to his audience about the importance of environmental preservation.

“For this work, I was inspired by a painting I saw in French architect Le Corbusier’s book titled ‘Towards an Architecture,’” said Shin.

The painting shows two ships: one in the shadows of important buildings in Paris and the other sailing behind small buildings in Venice.

It represents the industrialization that took place during the 20th century in a way that’s both artistic and architectural, Shin said, and it made him interested in the way ships could be used as symbols.

According to the museum, Shin was lauded by the panel of judges from both in and outside of Korea, who said in their decision that his project could serve to remind people about “issues of industrialization, environment, human beings and ecology.”

Works from the other architects that participated in the program are being displayed in MMCA’s Gallery 8 in the form of sketches and models.

According to the museum, it asked members of the press and the local architecture community to recommend 23 teams to participate in the project. Of those, five were selected by judges to submit proposals.

“Temp’L” will be on display until Oct. 3.