Pavilion of Floating Lights

About this place

Across the Nam River from Chokseongnu, the cliff-top pavilion that has been Jinju's emblem for centuries, JK-AR's Pavilion of Floating Lights opened in 2022 as a rest area beside the wharf for the city's Kim Si-min-ho river cruise. Architect Jae K. Kim, a professor at Hanyang University known for contemporary timber work, set out to imagine how the 'nu', the raised, open-sided Korean pavilion, might have evolved had its carpentry tradition continued unbroken. The answer is six tree-like columns that echo the six front pillars of Chokseongnu. Each trunk branches into a dense canopy of plywood members that reinterprets the stacked brackets of traditional roofs. The pieces were cut with a CNC router and assembled without nails or adhesives using interlocking joints, with augmented reality guiding the builders on site. From the riverside cycle path the building reads as a long glass box raised on concrete piers, its timber roof curving up toward the water like an eave. Inside, the timber forest is fully visible: light filters through the branching structure onto birch-plywood walls and long benches, and full-height glazing frames the river. The pavilion won awards at the Wood Design & Building Awards and the 2022 Korea Wood Design Awards. Go late in the day, when low sun throws the branches' shadows across the floor, or after dark, when the building glows over the river toward the lit walls of Jinju Fortress.