WORLD'S FIRST AUDIO MUSEUM TURNS SOUND INTO ARCHITECTURE — Quick Facts
Seoul's Audeum Audio Museum by Kengo Kuma wins Prix Versailles 2025. World's first audio museum transforms sound into architecture across 7 levels of sensorial.
Key Data Points
- Audeum won the Special Prize for Interior at Prix Versailles 2025, competing against seven global museums
- The seven-story museum spans 224,246 square meters with 20,000 aluminum pipes creating the facade
- Exhibits include Western Electric's 12-A Sound Systems that launched the 'Talkies' era with 1927's The Jazz Singer
Frequently Asked
- What is Audeum and where is it located?
- Audeum is the world's first dedicated audio museum located in Seoul, South Korea, in the Seocho-gu district near Gangnam, overlooking Cheonggyesan. The seven-story museum spans over 11,000 square meters and houses the world's largest audio equipment archives.
- Who designed the Audeum museum building?
- Kengo Kuma and Associates, a renowned Japanese architecture firm, designed Audeum with its distinctive exterior featuring 20,000 overlapping aluminum tubes that create changing shadows reminiscent of sunlight in a bamboo forest.
- What award did Audeum win at Prix Versailles 2025?
- Audeum won the Special Prize for Interior at Prix Versailles 2025, competing against seven other global museums, recognizing its innovative interior design that combines Alaskan cypress wood with sensorial exhibition spaces.
- What historical audio equipment is displayed at Audeum?
- Audeum features Western Electric's 12-A Sound Systems, the pioneering equipment that launched the 'Talkies' era with the 1927 film 'The Jazz Singer,' along with the world's largest collection of audio equipment archives.
- Who founded Audeum and why?
- Michael Chung, founder of Silbatone Acoustics and Chairman of KCC Corporation, founded Audeum in June 2024 as a tribute to his father, the late honorary chairman Chung Sang-yung, creating what became a revolutionary audio museum.