The Audeum- The World’s First Audio Museum, in Seoul, South Korea

The Audeum is the world's first museum entirely dedicated to the art of sound, serving as a unique respite from the rush and discordancy of urban life - and you don’t have to be an audiophile to be enamoured by the Audeum, you just have to be human.

This free museum (11,000 m² tall with seven stories) is located in South Korea’s Seochu-Gua, overlooking the idyllic Cheonggye mountains, and is just a stone's throw away from the bustle and din of downtown Seoul. The museum was first established in June 2023 by Michael Chung, founder of Korean audio specialist ‘Silbatone Acoustics’, in memory of his late father and in 2025, it was voted as one of the “World’s Most Beautiful Museums” by Prix Versailles for its mesmerising architectural design. Unlike most museums, the architecture is as integral to the Audeum as its audio equipment and exhibitions are. Designed by the celebrated Japanese architect, Kengo Kunga, The Audeum’s construction was calculated every step of the way to heighten its sonic, sensorial and sylvan experience for visitors. 

The facade of the Audeum is like no other museum; it is completely enveloped in 20,000 aluminium pipes, cascading at different lengths, creating changing shadows where light meets between the louvers. Kengo Kuma expressed how he wanted to “replicate a randomness that can be found in nature” and the result is a komerabi like effect where the exterior emulates the sun's travel through dense forest trees.
The reflection of weather on the facade of bright pipes reflects the constant state of natural flux. Yet another perspective of the design is Kenya Hara’s, (art director and signage designer of the Audeum) feeling that the suspended pipes symbolise “music that has been paused, frozen like ice”.

The interior design continues to immerse visitors into an acute awareness of nature. Kenga feels that this is vital to appreciating sound, noting “To experience a place that offers an exceptional sonic experience…it is important for individuals to reconnect with nature.” In order to separate themselves from the quotidian urban noise.
The cascading pipes continue inside, now with walls of thick stone.
The interior gradually becomes more rustic and soft as Alaskan cypress adorns the walls and floors, contrasting the aluminium. This wood was used due to its strong scent and its “draped finish” which creates impressive acoustic effects.
Aside from the cypress materials, exhibition rooms are also entirely cloaked in various fabrics — also highly sound conductive.
In one of the fabriced display rooms sits a “vacuum tube amplifier”, a charming artefact which uses tubes to amplify audio signals.
But the Audeum houses many more rare, modern and historical pieces, such as the Edison phonograph or the Western Electric’s 12-A and 13-A Sound Systems which were credited with beginning the “talkies”.
Their current exhibition focuses on high fidelity or “hi-fi” sound, titled “jung eum” in search of sound. 

The Audeum both celebrates the technological and human relationship to sound, offering a space which reminds humans that they are just as important to the equation. A place like the Audeum (“a fitting name for a museum which has no precedent”) celebrates taking a step back and experiencing the present moment which feels more important now than ever.
As designer Kenya Hara continues “recently, there have been attempts to extend the human senses in the virtual world, but I believe that the wonder and fullness of life can only be felt by flexibly using the senses of the human body.”
Without a doubt, the Audeum is a museum which achieves this sentiment. 

Written by Ben Lynch

Edited by Alex Kelleher