Audeum Audio Museum, Songeun Art and Cultural Foundation and Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, South Korea
Exploring Seoul’s contemporary side, from the unique Audeum Audio Museum and SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation to the upscale streets of Cheongdam-dong. 1284
Audeum Audio Museum: 6 Heolleung-ro 8-gil, Seocho District, Seoul, South Korea
Songeum Art and Cultural Foundation: 441 Dosan-daero, Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea
Cehongdam-dong Luxury Fashion Street: 141-16 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea
Date Picture Taken: Apr, 2026
While searching online for interesting places to visit in Seoul, I came across three distinctive modern buildings that caught my attention: the Audeum Audio Museum, SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation, and Seoul National University Museum of Art. I visited Audeum and SongEun on this outing, while I saved the Seoul National University Museum of Art for another day.
Audeum Audio Museum (오디움) — designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, with a striking exterior of vertical aluminum pipes.
Opened in 2024, the Audeum Audio Museum is a unique museum dedicated to the history and experience of recorded sound. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the building is especially striking for its exterior covered with thousands of vertical aluminum pipes, creating changing patterns of light and shadow.
Inside, the museum traces about 150 years of audio technology, from early phonographs to sophisticated high-fidelity sound systems. Audeum was designed not simply as a place to look at exhibits, but as a place where visitors can actually experience sound, making both its architecture and its remarkable audio collection part of the attraction.
The museum could only be visited on a guided tour, and advance reservations were required. Unfortunately, I did not have a reservation and arrived too late to join the last tour of the day, so I was only able to see the entrance and a small portion of the museum rather than explore the main exhibition areas.
SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation (송은) — designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and completed in 2021. Its tall, triangular concrete form is particularly distinctive.
The current ST SONGEUN Building opened in 2021 in Cheongdam-dong and was designed by the celebrated Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the architects behind projects such as Tate Modern in London. SONGEUN was actually their first completed building in South Korea.
The most striking feature is its sharp triangular shape. Facing busy Dosan-daero, the building rises to about 59 meters (193 feet), while the back slopes down toward a quieter garden and residential neighborhood. The shape wasn't created just for appearance—it developed partly from Seoul's zoning restrictions, which the architects used to maximize the available space while creating a sculptural building.
Another detail worth looking closely at is the seemingly plain concrete exterior. The concrete was cast using larch-plywood formwork, leaving wood-grain patterns across the surface. This is a reference to the name SongEun (송은), meaning “Hidden Pine Tree.”
Inside, the building combines contemporary-art galleries, public spaces and offices. There are 11 floors above ground and five underground, with galleries connected through unusual spaces including a large staircase and a dramatic underground exhibition area. SONGEUN is a nonprofit foundation that supports contemporary artists through exhibitions, awards and other programs.
The center was right next to Cheongdam-dong Luxury Fashion Street, so after my visit, I leisurely walked over to visit the area. I had explored this street about five years earlier and already have a separate blog about that visit, but I decided to walk through it again to see how the area had changed.
