Itami Jun Museum

Character

When Itami Jun died in 2011, his will asked that a cultural foundation and memorial be created in his name—and left the responsibility to his daughter, architect Yoo Ehwa. She later designed the museum herself

The assignment could easily have become imitation. Instead, Yoo built a two-storey, roughly 700-square-metre museum that borrows her father’s concerns—wind, natural light, rough material, low horizontal forms—without reproducing one of his buildings. An elliptical volume brings daylight deep into the center, while openings pull the surrounding Jeju landscape back into the interior

The family story remains unusually visible. Yoo has recalled that the will ended by softening its command: the museum and foundation were her father’s wish, not an order. Her family laughed when they read it; the burden still became hers

The experience

The museum begins as biography upstairs. Models, drawings, photographs and video trace work from his 1971 House for Mother through late Jeju projects including Podo Hotel, the Water-Wind-Stone museums and Bangju Church. Itami’s painting, calligraphy and sculpture sit beside the architecture, so the display keeps breaking the category implied by the museum’s name

Downstairs, the building slows further. The library is called the Space of Ink, and the tea lounge extends a habit associated with Itami himself: he was particular about tea and served green tea or hojicha to guests. The museum’s signature tea program turns that private habit into part of the visit

There are smaller material details that feel closer to a house than a monument. SPACE described the approach through a low garden wall and a wooden door; a dragon motif associated with Itami appears as a handle beyond it. The museum even uses a signature scent as part of its deliberately multi-sensory program

History

Yoo Dong-ryong was born in Tokyo in 1937 to a Korean family and worked under the name Itami Jun. He kept Korean nationality while building a career across Japan and Korea, and Jeju became one of the most important late landscapes in his work

After his death, the Itami Jun Architecture & Culture Foundation was established in 2018. The museum followed in December 2022 in Jeoji Artist Village, opening with a survey of more than forty years of work

The project also became a work by the next generation. Yoo Ehwa designed the museum and became its director. In 2023 the building received an award from the Korean Institute of Architects, giving the memorial a life in architectural culture beyond the archive it houses

Before you go

The intended sequence is not just gallery after gallery. The museum directs the visit from the second-floor exhibitions into first-floor spaces for reading, tea and slower reflection, so a short floor area can still take longer than its size suggests