Video: Daeyang Gallery and House: A Conversation with Steven Holl

I love hearing Mr. Holl discuss his architecture. His attention to detail, light, poetry, choreography, all in unison is inspiring - something that more architects should be weaving throughout their buildings. He is thoughtful on how each design moves affects our senses, from the warmth of a wood door handle to the reverberating echo of a room.

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Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Spirit of Space has created two short films on the Daeyang Gallery and House, completed in June in Seoul, South Korea.

Filmed during the project's opening celebration, "A Conversation with Steven Holl" presents Steven Holl on site as he explains the design inspiration. The second of the two films, entitled "Daeyang Gallery and House," explores the project through its use of light, material and detail.

Inspired by a 1967 sketch for a music score by composer Istvan Anhalt called “Symphony of Modules,” the gallery and house is a composition in sequential movement. Three pavilions - one for entry, one residence, and one event space - appear to push upward from a continuous gallery level below. A reflecting pool, which simultaneously separates and connects the pavilions, establishes the plane of reference from above and below.

The red and charcoal stained wood interiors of the pavilions are activated by skylight strips of clear glass that are cut into the roof. Sunlight turns and bends around the inner spaces, animating them with the changing light of each season and throughout the day. Like a cesura in music, strips of glass lenses in the base of the pool break through the surface, bringing dappled light to the white plaster walls and white granite floor of the gallery below.

Exteriors are a rain screen of custom patinated copper, which ages naturally within the landscape. The Daeyang Gallery and House is heated and cooled with geothermal wells.

This video is a poetic journey through the building:

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