Architecture

Hyundai's UNique Motorstudio Goyang

The new facility is the largest automobile-experience theme park in South Korea.
12 July, 2017
If you thought Ferrari World was the only game in town when it comes to automotive manufacturers tying the brand to fun destinations, think again.
Here comes Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang, the latest themed experience to join the company's other locations in Seoul, Haman and Moscow. The company says some 2,000 visitors are expected per day to come experience the science and story of the cars.

Motorstudio Goyang promises 4,000 square meters of exhibit and interactive learning space beyond an oversized vehicle showroom entranceway, spanning across three floors dedicated to design and technology. The exhibition space designed by German architectural firm ATELIER BRÜCKNER is inside a gleaming glass-walled building envisioned by Delugan Meissl that spans an entire city block.
Delugan Meissl
The uniqueness of the building – and at the same time the main challenge of its design – lies in its ambition to unite a multitude of functions – Sales, Brand Center, Automotive Theme Park, Offices and Services – in one structure. These functions are positioned in horizontal areas, one above the other, and are connected through the vertical design elements.
Visitors can check out the latest World Rally Championship (WRC) cars before heading into exhibits that trace the journey across Hyundai's auto manufacturing process. That experience begins with learning about raw materials including steel, as well as a high-tech window into R&D and how the vehicles are designed. An interactive robotics "plant" exhibit demonstrates how vehicles are produced, with visitors controlling the welding robots and building the seats, windshield and other components into a demo. Once each hour, the robots stop working and together perform a classical ballet for Motorstudio guests.

There's a wind room, where vehicle aerodynamics come to life in an exhibit that makes them visible. There's a larger-than-life engine to walk through and learn how it works, with full-length glass panels that provide cross-section views of what's going on inside and animation of how parts work together.
The highlight, according to ATELIER BRÜCKNER, is a kinetic sculpture located on the top floor of the building, in a tower that juts out over the center as if it were a ship. Visitors reach the top in an elevator that's part of the choreographed experience and opens to a room where 1,411 shiny aluminium rods are installed in a tight grid in the center of the room. The aluminium rods create a 20 square meter, long and narrow rectangle that is in constant motion, with an individual drive installed on each of the rods.

Those drives can propel any one rod to a 1.4 meter height, together creating flowing and three-dimensional designs that align with the Hyundai philosophy of "Creating Design from Movement." They tell that story in show mode, but when the kinetic sculpture is set to reactive mode, the aluminium rods are responsive to the movement of the visitors in the room, rippling and dancing along with them. A bank of video monitors that wraps around the room displays content that's timed to the kinetic sculpture.
Other features include safety and crash-test visuals that, along with a real test car, demonstrate how developments like air bags work. There's also a 3D sound system for engine and interior audio tracks.

If you're visiting, don't forget your driver's license. For some enthusiasts, the theme test drive program available to let them try out new and top-of-the-line vehicles is going to be the best part.
Banner image: Archdaily