Yumin Art Nouveau Collection

About this place

Yumin Art Nouveau Collection (유민미술관) opened in 2017 as part of the Phoenix Island resort development on Seopjikoji, the basalt cape on Jeju's eastern coast. Like the Glass House nearby, it was designed by Tadao Ando. The two buildings occupy the same resort complex, though they serve distinct programmes and have distinct spatial characters. The museum was commissioned by the Hanhwa Resort Group to house a private collection of European Art Nouveau objects alongside traditional Korean folk art and artifacts. The Art Nouveau holdings include Tiffany glasswork, Gallé vases, Lalique pieces, and Mucha graphics — an unusual assembly for a museum in Korea, and one that reflects the personal collecting interests of the founding patron. Ando's building is largely subterranean, set into the coastal hillside to minimise its visual presence within the landscape. The approach descends through a sequence of outdoor concrete corridors and light wells before entering the underground galleries. The primary materials are board-formed concrete and natural stone; the roof is grassed over, so the building reads from above as a continuation of the landscape rather than a discrete object. The spatial experience inside moves between narrow passages and suddenly high vaulted volumes — a compression-and-release strategy that Ando has used across many museum projects, and which here is calibrated to the intimate scale of the decorative arts collection. Selected gallery spaces are top-lit through narrow apertures that shift with the time of day. Seopjikoji itself — with its pampas grass fields, basalt formations, and views toward Seongsan Ilchulbong — remains the dominant experience of the visit; the museum positions itself as part of that landscape rather than as an independent destination.