Tracing the Korean Pavilion in Venice

The Korean Pavilion, located in the Giardini—the main venue of the Venice Biennale—holds great significance as a point of contact between Korean art and culture and the world. The pavilion was the last national pavilion to be built in the Giardini, and its construction carries many stories. Designed through the collaboration of South Korean architect Kim Seok Chul and Italian architect Franco Mancuso, and realized with the participation of local construction firms, the pavilion opened in 1995, the centenary year of the Venice Biennale. Yet the Korean Pavilion, whose construction had been achieved only after considerable difficulty, was also met with expressions of dissatisfaction. It became the subject of criticism for its distinctive exterior and interior spaces, which differed from those of a conventional art museum, as well as its location on a hillside rather than on level ground. Many wondered why it had been designed in this way, yet no clear explanation was provided.

Thereafter, the donation of archival materials by Franco Mancuso in 2023 provided the basis for reconstructing the background and design processes of the Korean Pavilion. Follow-up work was also undertaken to document the deliberations involved in satisfying the stringent requirements for obtaining a building permit, and to reconstruct that process through a series of three-dimensional models corresponding to each stage of the design. The early sketches and hand-drawn architectural drawings exchanged primarily by fax between the two architects—in an era before the internet—are in many cases difficult to decipher due to their conceptual and abstract nature. Yet by examining the letters, documents, and other contemporaneous records, it has become possible to discern and reconstruct the architects’ intentions and deliberations.

The stage-by-stage reconstruction of the architectural proposals presented in Tracing the Korean Pavilion reflect the painstaking journey undertaken by the two architects together. It was through that journey—resolving, one by one, the complex requirements imposed by the City of Venice (Comune di Venezia), the Veneto Region(Regione del Veneto), the Venice Biennale(La Biennale di Venezia), and other authorities—that the construction of the Korean Pavilion became possible. We invite you to explore the evolution of the pavilion’s design through a virtual spatial experience and to imagine the design solutions you yourself might have arrived at.

The Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was completed in 1995 and still retains much of its original appearance. It is the result of many design alternatives developed through the combined wisdom of two architects more than thirty years ago, as documented in the archival materials preserved to this day. A building is first conceived in the architect’s mind before it is erected on the ground; It is rarely realized all at once but instead takes shape through the consideration of multiple alternatives, from which the most suitable solution is selected and brought to fruition.


The ARKO Arts Archive’s Tracing the Korean Pavilion project is a research initiative that reconstructs in three dimensions the alternative designs that once existed only in the minds of two architects before disappearing, thereby illuminating the design process that led to the pavilion as it exists today. Even before reconstructing the design at each stage, the research team first faced the challenge of creating a three-dimensional model of the site surrounding the Korean Pavilion. Under the conditions of a building permit that required existing site features—including the topography—to be preserved as much as possible, the site’s terrain was one of the most critical factors shaping the design. However, the team soon discovered that no detailed topographic maps existed. Because the ground elevation of Venice is remarkably uniform and even the artificial mound on which the Korean Pavilion stands has an elevation difference of only 4-5 meters, such maps had never been produced. Yet this seemingly modest difference in elevation is significant at the scale of the human body and was therefore a crucial consideration in reconstructing the design. The research team painstakingly recreated the sloping terrain by drawing on elevation data measured by the original Mancuso team, estimated contour lines prepared for the 2017 feasibility study for the remodeling of the Korean Pavilion, and contemporary photographs of the site. This process alone required a considerable investment of time and effort.


Based on the materials donated by Mancuso, the design process from initial conception to completion was divided into eight stages, and work proceeded to reconstruct the principal design elements and forms of each stage. Within the short period of just over a year between the initial conception and the start of construction, the design underwent eight major turning points. Reconstructing the architectural concepts up to the seventh stage—before they had been developed into proper drawings—was truly akin to deciphering a coded text. Every dot and line in the sketches and hand-drawn drawings exchanged by the two architects by fax constituted a code that the research team had to decipher, and deducing the meaning of barely legible handwritten words was much like solving a crossword puzzle. Whenever multiple faxes had been exchanged within a single day, it was possible to imagine the urgency with which the two architects were working. In such cases, the contents had to be read in the order of the transmission times printed at the top of each fax, while taking into account the time difference between the two countries.

The reconstruction of the evolution of the Korean Pavilion’s design concept—once thought to be nearly impossible—was made possible by Mancuso’s donation of archival materials in 2023. Through the cross-referencing of approximately 4,000 drawings, documents, and photographs, the research team was able to reconstruct and visualize the design process stage by stage. Just as the two architects had put their heads together to solve an extraordinarily difficult problem more than thirty years earlier, a younger generation devoted itself to reviving the ideas that had long since vanished from the architects’ memories.


When I visited Professor Mancuso in Venice with the results of the research, I saw the eyes of the architect, then approaching ninety, shining with the curiosity of a child. For nearly two hours, we discussed the basis and methodology for reconstructing the stage-by-stage three-dimensional models in a lively exchange of questions and answers. The following day, we spent another hour demonstrating the multi-view reconstruction of the 3D model. Watching the elderly architect express his deep emotion, saying that he had never imagined his donated materials could be used in this way, I felt all the hardships and stress of the project melt away.

The stage-by-stage three-dimensional reconstruction of the architectural concept for the Korean Pavilion, presented through the Tracing the Korean Pavilion project, is a significant achievement made possible by the dedication and tireless efforts of the staff and research team of the ARKO Arts Archive. We hope that this achievement will provide the public with a valuable opportunity to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the architectural significance of the Korean Pavilion.