In April 2021, the family of the late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of the Samsung Group, announced their intention to donate approximately 23,000 cultural assets and artworks he had owned back to society. Accordingly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism decided to effectively manage these donations and share them with the public by promoting construction of the Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall on a site within Songhyeon Cultural Park in Jongno-gu. Located on the east side of Songhyeon Park, the project site will become a cultural hub adjacent to the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, historic palaces, Insa-dong, and Bukchon. The “Songhyeon Open Museum,” proposed by Junglim Architecture, aims to be a city park coexisting with surrounding historical sites and serve as an urban mediator that embraces diverse genres of donated works spanning the past and present as well as future art.

Surrounded by nature and the city, the museum’s ground floor consists of programs connected to various alleys. Each program block accommodates functions such as exhibition, education, lobby, café, and auditorium. The lobbies located between the blocks visually connect the exhibition spaces through internal voids, directly link to the external park, and allow for diverse experiences and relaxation. The museum is expected to become an innovative public cultural space for citizens and international visitors, naturally combining art and daily life, city and nature.