On Friday, December 1st, MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas was one of seven designers to unveil entries for the Seoripul Open Storage Museum Design Competition in a public presentation that was streamed live and can now be watched via the video below. The presentation of Winy Maas begins at 2:26:30.

As of June 2023, the city of Seoul owns approximately 450,000 cultural and artistic resources, of which only around 5% are displayed or made public. Visitors are rarely allowed access to the remaining 95% of the overall collection. Through the Seoripul Open Storage Museum Design Competition, it’s anticipated that an additional 100,000 items that have high academic and aesthetic value will become available to the public via this museum-type storage facility, raising the visibility of the entire collection to 30%.

A select group of South Korean and international architectural firms in addition to MVRDV were also invited to participate, comprising Herzog & de Meuron (CH), Foster + Partners (UK), 3XN (DK), Hyunjoon Yoo Architects (KR), OCA (KR), and Mass Studies (KR).

A six-person jury including Grace La (Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and cofounder of LA DALLMAN) and Sung-hong Kim (Professor of Architecture at University of Seoul) will be responsible for judging the submissions, with the competition outcome announced on 15 December.