This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights cultural centers by the ArchDaily community. From a spiral- gallery symbolizing the Jinju culture in South Korea, a building devoted to Irish culture to a gallery to serve as a cultural incubator for Indonesia, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects, community, and institutions team up to promote culture, arts, history, and reflection.
Featuring the firms Id lab architecture, Oxo arc, Atelier of spatial matters, ddrlp, Brno Architectural studio AOSI, Nir Shmueli Studio, Macary-Bensh Architecture, MZ Architects, and Studio BANAA, the following list explores cultural centers at different scales and varying stages of their development. Whether competition-winning projects or ongoing planned execution, each project gathers neighborhoods, arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored or activist-run.
Read on to discover 8 unbuilt cultural centers submitted from Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, Slovakia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the USA, and their project descriptions from the architects.
Jinju Culture Centre | South Korea
Time cannot travel backward, but memories can. Jinju City is the carrier of these memories. Jinju city is known for its rich history, in which historical events such as the Imjin War have become essential memories. Hence, Jinju is distinct from other cities through its patriotism and national culture. This cultural center symbolizes Jinju culture, a magic box that attracts people to explore, and a time machine that constantly allows people to travel between the past and the future.
Kain Kapas | Indonesia
This building is a curatorial toolbox that supports the juxtaposition of activities and productions in terms of time, geography, scale, and media. A unique spatial matrix not limited by disciplinary categories, with a range of sizes that offers unlimited flexibility for all media. A super lobby connects the gallery as an extension of the city and its gardens, inviting creative breaks. BDD becomes a cultural incubator for Tangerang and Jakarta by combining curatorial experimentation with new educational models.
Korean Museum of Urbanism and Architecture | South Korea
Atelier of spatial matters was among five finalists in an international competition to design a national museum of urbanism and architecture. The atelier's proposal draws attention to its peculiarities—a museum that is an exhibit of architecture. They shape a catalog of spatial conditions by functioning as viewing platforms, framing tools, and interactive instruments. A careful composition of architectonic elements simultaneously forms a cohesive building and melds into the exhibits, seemingly straddling the contradictions of its inherent oxymoron.
KYDNOS Tarsus Waterfall | Turkey
The project area was handled in 3 parts, and different design approaches were produced. The human and culture-centered arrangements discussed in Part 1 offer suggestions on how nature components are made as structural designs with varying comfort strategies. For Part 2, Waterfall and its surroundings include nature-centered, process design-based recommendations involving cleansing, natural tissue restoration, and repair of all currently available appendices and human-centered interventions. Part 3 (+): The interface region connects and separates the first two parts. This region will continue along the Berdan Stream and cover the part extending to the Berdan dam lake and Tarsus nature park.
Living Water | Israel
Nir Shmueli Studio and Macary-Bensh Architecture
Bialik Square Proposal aims to preserve the unique character of the square while at the same time pouring new content, commemorating forgotten experiences, and revealing hidden forces. The ground level is dedicated to the public itself; all the existing building is being preserved, and at first glance, the square retains its essence, but at the same time, it contains the addition of new values. The urban space catalysator generated by the historic fountain is a physical testimony to other times.
TeamLab Phenomena | United Arab Emirates
The Department of Culture and Tourism(DCT)Abu Dhabi has partnered with Miral, the Emirate's leading creator of destinations and experiences, to develop the concept, architecture, and facilities alongside teamLab, the globally acclaimed, interdisciplinary Tokyo-based art collective known for their unique artistic vision. The 17,000sqm (GFA) building is set to be an immersive, inspirational space where the intersection of art and technology will ignite curiosity, imagination, and creativity. Slated to be completed in 2024, it is the latest offering of the Saadiyat Cultural District.
The Village Cultural Cente | Slovakia
Brno Architectural studio AOSI
The cultural center in the village of Ivanka pri Dunaji near Bratislava will get a new look. Young Brno-based studio AOSI has won the open architectural competition with its proposed design. The project works with the original silhouette of the Cultural hall and adds new mass. This proposed extension encloses a new intimate inner courtyard directly connected to the main entrance. The addition allows for greater programmatic flexibility enabling various functions of the building to continue even when the main social hall is not in use.
United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco | USA
The United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco is a nonprofit organization that provides all aspects of Irish culture, history, and events to its members. Located in the Outer Sunset, the Irish community bootstrapped the building's original construction in 1973. BANAA's proposal includes a new six-story facility that can accommodate a greater variety of spaces devoted to cultural programming - one that will sustain itself and keep the Irish dream alive for many generations to come.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you if it is selected for a feature.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on November 09, 2022
