Incheon Geomdan Museum
A Museum-Library Rendered Without Rules
Beyond briefs
At ZOA, the pursuit of excellence doesn’t end with client projects: some of our most exciting renderings begin where the briefs stop. Our regular in-house competitions are vital to our studio’s culture and our ever-expanding portfolio, designed to sharpen 3D artistry and technical knowledge, and explore radical new tools and techniques. Without the usual production pressures, artists are given the rare opportunity to express ideas that sit outside day-to-day demands and commissioned work.
For one of our recent in-house competitions, we gained access to a past project by WOMO Architects: the Incheon Geomdan Museum-Library. With only basic references available, our experimenting artist, Bence Farkas, was challenged to introduce the project in new angles. But the real excitement lay in the fact that, for once, there was no client to please. No expectations and requirements set in stone—just the plan of the building, and his particular interpretation of it.
Full artistic play
The Museum-Library is a captivating piece of architecture providing rich starting points: from every angle, its sculptural forms express the building’s core idea of openness, exploration, and organic flow. The man-made lake wrapping around the structure gave the artist an added playground—a liquid negative space that offered opportunities to create lush islands of greenery, frame reflections creatively, and design water surfaces that responded to different moods and atmospheres.
Lighting was another area for full artistic play. Without being tied to real-world sun positions, our artist could experiment freely, creating dreamlike dusk scenes, vivid midday moments, and even contrasting nightscapes. In the absence of client constraints, the images became an exploration of the power of pure mood, with extreme color grading and punchy compositions amplifying the building’s already compelling form.
Strategic liberation
This project is a perfect reminder that experimentation and unrestricted creativity lead to exceptional results. By creating these speculative visualizations—far from specific client demands and deadline pressures—we don’t merely sharpen our technical abilities. We’re expanding the vocabulary of what architecture can be in our collective imagination.
Trusting the creative process can open the door to truly unforgettable renderings. When architects are given room to explore and experiment—especially in this increasingly competitive field—and go beyond merely documenting their work to tapping into emotion, the results speak for themselves.
Project details
