Leeum Museum of Art

Character

Three buildings meet at one lobby, but they announce different kinds of looking. Mario Botta’s terracotta M1 rises around a circular rotunda, Jean Nouvel’s M2 uses steel and glass for modern and contemporary art, and Rem Koolhaas’s Black Box creates a controlled space for experimental exhibitions

The architecture was conceived alongside the collections. Botta linked M1’s terracotta skin to the earth and fire of Korean ceramics; Nouvel gave M2 a darker metallic exterior and glass; Koolhaas used black concrete and a large enclosed volume whose light can be fully controlled. Moving between buildings changes the curatorial language as clearly as the collections change period and medium

The experience

M1 is the clearest place to begin. Its galleries wrap around a tall circular void, with a spiral stair descending toward the lobby. Korean ceramics, metalwork, painting and Buddhist art occupy a building whose heavy geometry and warm material palette were designed around the collection’s historical weight. The rotunda also gives the visit a continuous vertical reference point as the galleries change floor by floor

M2 shifts the mood through industrial materials and more flexible gallery spaces. The Koolhaas building adds another register through the Black Box and Ground Gallery, spaces suited to special projects, performance and media. Because all three meet around the same entrance and lobby, the architectural contrast stays easy to read within a compact visit

The outdoor deck adds a fourth spatial register. Built over the parking structure between the buildings, it works as an open sculpture-and-garden terrace where visitors can step back from the galleries and read the museum as an ensemble. Wide views toward M1 and M2 make the architecture itself part of the outdoor display

History

The Samsung Foundation of Culture began building its art collection after the foundation was established in 1965. For years, major works were shown through the Ho-Am Art Gallery and related institutions before the foundation created a permanent museum complex in Hannam-dong. Construction of Leeum stretched across the Asian financial crisis, with work interrupted after excavation began and later resumed

Leeum opened to the public in 2004. The project brought Botta, Nouvel and Koolhaas together on one site, giving each architect a distinct building while linking their circulation through a shared lobby and ramp system. M1 was assigned to Korean traditional art, M2 to modern and contemporary work, and the Koolhaas-designed building to education and flexible exhibition functions

A major renovation in 2021 refreshed the lobby, visitor facilities and museum identity while keeping the three-building structure intact. That continuity matters: the museum’s collection spans very different periods and media, and the architecture still gives those differences physical form

Before you go

Use the collection and current exhibition schedule to decide how long to stay. The Korean traditional-art permanent exhibition is free, while special exhibitions may require paid tickets. Advance booking is useful for a preferred time, especially for popular shows, though walk-in tickets are possible when capacity allows. Hangangjin Station is close, but the final approach climbs a short hill into Hannam-dong