NJPlatform
NJPlatform is a new public space project at the Nam June Paik Art Center in Yong-In, Korea. The project attempts to redefine the role of institutional spaces in the city establishing a new multi-functional public infrastructure in the central space of the Art Center. Challenging the often passive programmatic conventions of museum lobby architecture, NJPlatform, with its "Lobby Case" and "Lobbying Element," advocates and supports the animated use of the space through active programming and spontaneous engagement. Rethinking the possibilities of the free-of-charge public space and its relationship to art and the city. NJPlatform reconfigures and transforms the museum. click for project pictures
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Delineating the relationship between the new experimental public space and the formal galleries in changing formations, the "Lobby Case" indexes, stores, and allows access to the various mobile "Lobbying Elements" that include Mobile Platforms, Screening Benches, Lobbying Islands, Mobile Stairs, Stepped Seating, and Folding Seating. The Case itself is also a highly configurable "element," made of interlocking but separable sliding units that can be placed anywhere within the Platform or in and out of the Art Center, redefining their contexts.
The "Lobby Case" and "Lobbying Elements" were designed for several pre-determined configurations, although administrators, curators, artists, and the public are encouraged to explore possibilities of creating new configurations and uses. Configurations include an auditorium and stage mode that allows for openings, concerts, and other gatherings, for over 200 occupants. For smaller occasions, a central platform can be assembled to form an amphitheater like arrangement. In more distributed layouts, the Lobbying Islands and other elements provide for a more informal lounge or an immersive/interactive performance space. The case may open, close, or roam, to allow for a long central stage or to reveal Paik's "TV Garden" in the paid gallery beyond, or provide enclosed or partially open mobile exhibition rooms or activity spaces.