Isang Yun Memorial was built for a Korean composer, Isang Yun, by Kiohun Architects and Associates ( http://www.kiohun.com/ ). The building is comprised of exhibition hall which shows the composer’s work, medals, notes, etc., small performance hall, outdoor performing area, cafe, gift shop, and lobby. Outdoor performance area and landscape was nicely done. Personally I like the way they worked out the decking for the slanted outdoor seating area with the steps and the trees.

Isang Yun was born in 1917 in Tongyeong and passed away in 1995 in Berlin. He was imprisoned by the Japanese for participating in Korean independence movement in 1943. After the war, he began teaching at the Seoul National University in 1953. Then he went to Europe for his music studies. While he was living in Berlin in the early 1960s, he was kidnapped by South Korea in 1967 for visiting North Korea in 1963. Through a worldwide petition signed by 200 artists including Igor Stravinsky and Heinz Holliger, Isang Yun was released in 1969. He returned to Berlin and obtained German citizenship in 1971, and taught at Hanover Academy of Music and Berlin University of Arts till 1985. Isang Yun is criticized for his music activities in North Korea, but still, he was one of the top five composers while he was alive, left more than 150 pieces of music. Also, he had received a high reputation in the Europe and US as a composer of an avantgardistic music with elements of Korean traditional instruments.

Site area  6,745sqm   |  Total floor area 867sqm