Jac Studios has designed minimal glass display cases for an exhibition in a Tadao Ando-designed museum – a project that has just won top prize at the Inside awards.
The Yumin Art Nouveau Collection exhibition is a permanent showcase at Tadao Ando's Genius Loci, a museum made up of board-marked concrete walls, located on Jeju Island, South Korea.
This exhibition features art-nouveau glass crafted between 1870 and 1940 by by French artist Émile Galle and his contemporaries.
The project was named Interior of the Year at the Inside interior design awards, which took place in Amsterdam last week.
Copenhagen-based Jac Studios chose to contrast the building's austere and heavy walls with transparent glass surfaces and volumes.
"The architecture by Tadao Ando plays a magnificent setting for the exhibition. The architecture is in itself a piece of art and visitors cannot avoid being touched by its beauty," explained Johan Carlsson, founder of Jac Studios.
"The proposal responds to the dramatic setting of the volcanic island of Jeju with emphasis on framing the artefacts, just like how the building frames the landscape."
Carlsson and his team worked alongside art-nouveau specialist Didier Laugault on the arrangement of the exhibition, ensuring that pieces are displayed in a way that draws attention to their ornate detailing.
In some of the exhibition rooms, pieces are shown individually inside central glass boxes, while in others they are shown in small groups behind glazed openings in the walls that are illuminated by spotlights.
Text signage for the exhibition has also been printed on pieces of glass, joined by tatami mats on the floor where visitors can sit and observe the works.
Panels of dichroic glass that appear to change colour when viewed from different angles feature on the building's exterior, hinting at the subject matter of the exhibition inside.
The studio hoped the panels would also "animate" the site by reflecting oncoming visitors, the surrounding coastal terrain, and altering levels of light and shadow throughout the day.
Jac Studio's interior for the Yumin Art Nouveau Collection topped Inside's Display category, before going on to scoop the top prize.
It was commended by judges for its "crafted sensibility, to both the building and the Gallé glass to which the museum is dedicated to".
Photography is by Yoonsung Choi, Jeongyoun Hong, and Mathias Kromann Rode.
Project credits:
Exhibition architect: Jac Studios
Lighting design: Fortheloveoflight
General contractor: Chang Creative