Jeju Narnia / Dongjin Kim (Hongik University) + L’eau design

© Shin Kyungsub

• Architects: Dongjin Kim (Hongik University), L'eau design
• Location: Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, South Korea
• Area: 860.24 m2
• Photographs: Shin Kyungsub

© Shin Kyungsub

Text description provided by the architects. Narnia is an imaginary land created by a space of fantasy. As vivid stories overlap with actual places, the epic scenery of Narnia’s program box makes one remember the space that appears in reality, as a fantasy. Like Jean Baudrillard said, perhaps hyper-reality is being used as a strategy to conceal reality in the real world. Just as Disneyland exists, imitating children, to turn adults’ childishness into fantasy, we dream of unfamiliar routines in an imaginary world created by hyperreality, which feels more real than reality.

© Shin Kyungsub

Like homo narrans with storytelling instincts, humans create different events and stories out of the same space, based on their own different modes of unconsciousness. And it is only possible to create my own story when my own memories stain the narrative scenery, rather than a weaving of picturesque scenes that float by.

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

In order to form a single body, Narnia’s rooms are not divided pieces within a whole; rather, it is made up of event boxes containing scenery of their own, stacked and tangled to form a scenery collection, thus creating a place. If these various event program boxes are able to emphasize or weaken the reality of each characteristic on their own and control the ambiance, this space will serve as a selective equalizer for tuning and generating individual scenes, like music.

© Shin Kyungsub

Those who enjoy traveling solo nowadays enjoy personal social sharing through one-off, accidental and unfamiliar encounters. In other words, modern, nomadic people themselves become the loners of life, wanting to establish a daily relationship through private sharing with each other. Narnia dreams of realistic deviation of travelers through the overlapping ‘curious room’.

© Shin Kyungsub

Diagram 3

© Shin Kyungsub