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Seowonmoon Lantern Urban Folly, Gwangju, South Korea

The design brief was to strengthen the quality of the public space within the ancient city centre of Gwangju, Korea. It is one of ten permanent Urban Folly projects built during the Gwangju Design Biennale 2011. Florian Beigel and Philip Christou, of ARU, with executive architects: Ahn Jong Hwan, AN architects, Seoul, and Shin Young Eun, SA_RAM architects, Gwangju.

This is an architecture designed without a particular use. However, it has many uses and meanings: a bus stop; a large street lantern; a small theatre with a stage; a shrine to commemorate the Gwangju Democracy Movement and public massacre of 1980. During the design process references such as the ancient Roman wall paintings of aedicule structures in Pompeii and Herculaneum were studied in the search for a delicate yet firm tectonic form.

To heighten the attraction of the given site, this small stage tower forges a strong relationship to the place and its history. It is like an aedicule or a small shrine. A double gateway at one end of the 36 x 2 meter site marks the former site of the Eastern Gate in the ancient city wall.

The Gwangju Design Biennale is the most significant and longstanding international biennale exhibition in Asia. More than 800,000 people visited the ARU Urban Folly during the Biennale between early September and late October 2011.

In the UK this project was featured twice in Building Design, and once in Blueprint.

In Korea it appeared in 21 National Newspapers, 25 Korean Local Newspapers, 3 Korean Local TV Networks, 3 Korean Radio broadcasts. It was published in the exhibition catalogues ‘Dogadobisangdo’ Gwangju Design Biennale 2011, Exhibition Books 1 and 2.