NC

We are pleased to unveil our new lobby on the first floor of R&D Center. It is a symbolic space where employees strive to create a new world and visitors get the first impressions, and was intended to not only share the vision of NC, but also to inspire all who visit.

This renovation project aimed to show how the magic and allure of NC’s gaming worlds could coexist and blend with a real life; blurring the lines between the digital world and reality.

The new R&D Center allows visitors to have truly unique experiences. Let's take a look at the overall concept that inspired these changes and the stories behind.

Players experience various worlds and create alter egos through games. A world inside a game is not just some virtual space, but another world that actually exists. NC focused heavily on these characteristics of games and tried to put that very idea into the redesigning of the lobby.

The main gate, information desk, cafe and reception room were all innovately recreated with the concept of "coexistence” in mind. New and existing facilities stand out in contrasting tones, giving visitors the impression that they are standing in a space where two dimensions meet.

At the center of the lobby is a large media wall standing at 4.3 m tall and 13.5 m wide. This awe-inspiring wall draws from various NC content. The goal was to highlight content that showcased the identity of NC in a new way aimed at inspiring the many people who would view it.

To achieve the goal, [NC ART PROJECT] was planned to show media art works. [NC ART PROJECT] – an experimental art platform – was designed to reinterpret the cultural settings of games and transform them into an artistic form. In this March, “MIXED DIMENSION”, the first project by media artist Min-ha Yang, was displayed. In the Future, NC will present more art works by collaborating with many other talented artists to provide a fresh point of view on games. Additionally, various original game and the newest cinematic videos that shows NC’s development capabilities will be screened. The overwhelmingly large size of the screen will make the visitors to feel a great sense of immersion just by looking at it.

As soon as you enter the eastern gate, you'll find a 23-meter-wide interactive gallery. The visitors can find the art works titled "Happiness" by Lee-nam Lee  and "Cognitive Space" by Min-ha Yang along the corridor. "Cognitive Space" is an interactive media art that expresses characters with lines by recreating NC's game with coding. NC's characters seem to be drawn with a brush creating a feeling of ink painting, and the space design element 'Louver' is cleverly used here to revive the unique flexibility of the art work. When you look at it up closely, there is a sense of lyrical ambiance created by these lines like strumming strings of an instrument.

The best feature of this space is the interactive element. As you walk closer to the media, the character over the wall slowly approaches and puts its hand on the wall as if trying to communicate. A silhouette over a white, translucent wall implies another dimension, and that the character living in that world may exist. It dynamically shows the theme of a mixture of virtual and real by utilizing the interactive element.

The NC Cafe on the first floor offers a positive brand experience to employees and visitors with high-quality coffee and premium services. At the entrance of the cafe is a large gate that reminds one of a portal, and people who pass the gate feel as if they are walking into a completely new space. The digital information display (DID) installed on the gate adds convenience by displaying seasonal menus, in-house events, and welcome messages.

This space offers a lot of convenience to employees and visitors alike. Coffee beans and user guides are prepared on the cafe bar to help customers select their drink of choice. Various pieces of furniture are mixed and matched for supporting various communications including comfortable rest, private talk and casual meeting, and a standing table has set up to allow visitors to stay while waiting.

There is an exhibition wall consisting of 40 showcases (8 columns, 5 rows) in the reception hall. They are specially made of mirrors, unlike ordinary showcases, to make it look like the exhibits exist in an endless space beyond the wall.

The collection of Director Hi-ju Lim, who managed the Academy of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, is exhibited in these showcases. The collection include folk arts from the bygone eras, containing the wisdom and beauty of ancestors. The collection is divided into four categories (筆:Write/ 捄: Contain/美:Decorate/ 用: Use) and operates as a rotation exhibition four times a year.

With the unlimited extension of exhibits consisting of pen cases, headband cases, ink pots, inkstones, and embroideries from the 19th century, the everyday lives of the past and present come together. We find clues about the future from the history and wisdom contained in the small, yet delicately simple folk arts. This Infinity Mirror goes beyond the simple exhibition of articles to speaks volumes about connection and knowledge sharing between different eras.