Hyundai Card turns its credit card into cultural membership with themed libraries

Hyundai Card is Korea's leading credit card issuer, but a card is easy to copy. Instead of competing on richer points, the company asked what would make its brand feel like part of people's lives. Its answer: build real cultural institutions — libraries themed on design, travel, music and cooking, each carrying more than 15,000 books and curated by experts under questions like 'Is it inspiring?' and 'Is it timeless?'

The first, the Design Library, opened in 2013 in Bukchon; the Travel Library followed in 2014, and the Music Library + Understage opened in Itaewon in 2015 with more than 10,000 vinyl records, nearly 4,000 books, the complete Rolling Stone collection from 1967, nine listening stations and a 500-capacity concert hall with free studios for underground musicians. Architecture was part of the idea: Choi Moon-kyu left half the Music Library's ground floor open to the city, and Gensler designed the interior around street-music culture, with murals by JR and Vhils.

The spaces worked so well that Hyundai Card scaled the concept into 'Hyundai Card Districts' in Itaewon and Apgujeong — a record store with 40,000+ LPs and CDs, an experimental exhibition space, a cooking library, a golf space and the world's first MoMA Bookstore. The Design Library won a Design for Asia Award 2013, the Music Library won a top prize at the Seoul Architecture Awards 2015, and the newsroom describes the libraries as must-visit spots that have become the epitome of Seoul's contemporary culture scene.