Architectural Heritage Value Dispersed on Sensuous Thresholds in Kim Swoo Geun’s Arario Museum in Space, Seoul

As a representation of Korea’s modern architecture, Kim Swoo Geun described the Space Group of Korea Building as an “enclosed but endless space”. The Space Group Building is currently Korea’s Registered Cultural Heritage No. 586. Its name was changed to Arario Museum in Space; since 2013, it has been used as a museum. This study aims to reveal what spatial features of the Arario Museum have value as cultural heritage to make its sustainable architectural message. This research will analyze spatial traits within thresholds, beyond the general spatial traits of the architecture itself. The threshold gives Arario Museum meaning as a registered cultural property of Korea. The fundamental methodology to analyze the issue of threshold is to document the architectural experience based on the architect’s interviews, sketches and diagrams for design intention and strategy. Kim’s space displays the unification of physical structure and invisible phenomenon and cognition. The definition of threshold and the elements that constitute it discussed in this research were those that cover such multileveled concepts as materials that constitute the threshold. In addition, the phenomenon and status of these elements extracted in such manner being actually dispersed was verified, and the obtained characteristics of the threshold can result in the following: the concealment, juxtaposition, and flexibility are ultimately expanded to the ambiguity which is unique to Arario Museum in Space. Concealment started from observing the surface of threshold itself, and juxtaposition is the relational interpretation among the various elements. After the analysis on the dispersion and contacts, the status and phenomena of the building’s thresholds were concluded as a flexibility connection to its heritage value.