Hasta La Ideas

Skyscrapers in Seoul: this skyscraper with a pointy midriff is the second of two stories about buildings designed for the Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea, by architect Daniel Libeskind.

Harmony Tower will be located in the north-eastern corner of the new commercial district next to another skyscraper designed by architect Dominique Perrault and will contain offices on 38 of its 46 floors.

Sheltered gardens will line the southern and eastern facades, offering views out towards the nearby Han river.

The base of the building will also taper inwards to create a larger area of landscaping around the entrance.

See more stories about the Yongsan International Business District, including a slideshow of all the projects commissioned by developer DreamHub.

Here’s some more information from Studio Daniel Libeskind:

Harmony Tower

Harmony Tower, a project that is part of the new Yongsan International Business district (YIBD)development in Seoul, is an iconic, 21st century sustainable office tower that is 46 floors.

The design for the tower is inspired by YunDeung, traditional Korean paper lanterns. The concept is to create a tower as a faceted lantern, whose multiple planes reflect the sky and the earth and capture the light on its differing angles, creating a glowing gateway and beacon in the YIBD site.

The sculpted tower is subtly shaped by the urban context. The tower tapers at its base to create a feeling of space and openness for the pedestrian plaza. The form then reaches out in the middle of the tower to maximize the floor plates and Han River views and to create a sense of scale marking the gateway from the western entrance to the site. The tower then tapers back and up to its top to allow the most light and air onto the other towers around, creating a strong ascending peak to the tower. The tower form creates multiple perspectives, like a sculpture in the round, with an ever changing public profile responding specifically to the site.

The tower contains unique vertical winter gardens on the south and west facades, providing users access to natural ventilation and planted park settings at each of the 38 office floors. The gardens not only act as a special amenity to all the tenants, but also a buffer to the direct sunlight hitting the glass building. The gardens function as open, park space within the building, but also help to reduce the heat gain and allow the building to function more sustainably. Harmony Tower is a state of the art workplace, interweaving themes of nature, sustainability, and efficiency in a faceted, sculptural form.

Location: Seoul, South Korea
Building size: 100,000 sq.m
Structure: Concrete central core and floor slabs with steel columns and mega bracing
Client: Dream Hub, AMC – Yongsan Development Co., Ltd.

Structural engineer: ARUP
Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing engineer: ARUP
Landscape architect: Martha Schwartz Partners
Lighting designer: Focus Lighting
Status: In design

Skyscrapers in Seoul: American architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have designed a skyscraper with glazed triangular facets for emerging commercial centre the Yongsan International Business District of Seoul, which we’ve been focussing on this week.

The Diagonal Tower will be a 343-metre-high office block on the north-eastern side of the district where fourteen other architects are also proposing high-rise developments.

Structural columns will be concealed within the building’s faceted glass skin, while a series of shading fins will help to reduce solar gain.

A web of netting will cloak a double height entrance lobby at the base of the tower, which will lead up to over 145,000 square metres of open-plan offices, a fitness centre, a cafe and a lounge in the penthouse to be shared by all the offices.

A small auditorium will be housed in an adjacent glazed cube covered in matching netting.

See more stories about the Yongsan International Business District, including a slideshow of all the projects within the masterplan designed by Daniel Libeskind for developer DreamHub.

SOM are also the architects of the tallest building in the world right now, the Burj Khalifa, which you can see images of here.

Here’s a more detailed explanation of the Diagonal Tower from SOM:

Diagonal Tower, Yongsan International Business District

Seoul, South Korea

Diagonal Tower is a 343-meter-tall office building in the Yongsan International Business District, a commercial and mixed use district planned for the center of Seoul, South Korea. The 62-story tower provides over 145,000 square meters of open office space, two double-height sky lobbies with a cafeteria and fitness center, and a penthouse executive lounge.

The project also includes two retail pavilions and a multifunctional auditorium, cubic in dimension, directly to the west of the tower. Diagonal Tower is distinctive for its rotated profile and integrated, energy-efficient enclosure. The tower commences at grade with a conventional square floor plate, which is rotated 45 degrees at one third the height of the tower and then rotated again at two thirds the height of the tower.

The resulting geometry offers varying octagonal floor plates and engages nearby landmarks. Instead of penetrating the interior of each floor plate, structural columns are integrated into the skin of the building. A megaframe carries loads diagonally along the folded edges of the tower’s faceted geometry and is supplemented by a set of vertical columns running along the facade at 12 meter spacing. The structural diagonal grid mitigates wind and seismic forces and uses 25% less steel than a conventionally framed building.

Sun shading fins, placed diagonally on each facet of the tower, vary in depth and spacing to achieve ideal shading targets. Overall, the repeating modularity of the structural and exterior wall profiles define a strikingly sculptural silhouette against the Yongsan skyline.

The ground floor lobby at the base of the tower is clad in a cable net wall, minimizing the appearance of the tower’s structural supports and creating a grand and inviting entrance to the building. The ceiling of the lobby slopes up and away from the core wall to hide the transferring columns, which allows the lobby to remain column-free with the exception of four corner piers. The piers, sloped ceiling and core walls are all clad in the same grey stone, providing the impression of monolithic stability at the base of the tower.

The building façade consists of a custom unitized curtain wall system with thermally broken aluminum framing and two-sided structurally-sealed, triple-insulated low-E glazing. Floor to ceiling glass units extend seamlessly to cover both vision and spandrel areas, and are broken only by a narrow horizontal track at each floor for the attachment of curtain-wall supported, aluminum fin shading devices.

Structural columns are integrated into the skin of the building; this effort not only creates an uninterrupted expanse of open space at each floor, but also intelligently balances the window-to-wall ratio to improve the building’s thermal performance. The tower will also be one of the first office building in Seoul to employ an integrated chilled beam cooling system.

Located to the west of the tower, a perfectly cubic 40m x 40mx 40m glass auditorium provides multifunctional space that can transform to offer a variety of spatial configurations. The exterior façade’s cable net wall system minimizes the wall’s structural members and exemplifies the concept of a pure glass volume. This concept is reinforced by the frit pattern on the glass, which not only reduces direct solar insolation, but also softens the cube into an abstract and ethereal volume, preventing it from becoming sterile and un-inviting.

An iconic solid mass is present within this ethereal glass enclosure; depending on the event within, this solid mass can open up and become transparent, offering passers-by views of the events inside. The openness on all four sides of the cube provides visual and physical connections to the Diagonal Tower, retail pavilions, and adjacent buildings.

Two small retail pavilions along the glass shaft boxes and trees of plaza landscape create neighborhood-scale spaces on the otherwise vast plazas between buildings, offering pedestrians and passers-by an attractive and friendly environment.

New York firm REX was another of the fifteen architects commissioned to design skyscrapers for the fast-growing Yongsan International Business District of Seoul, South Korea. They’ve proposed a tower that looks like like a filing cabinet with its drawers open.

A hollow centre and large courtyard garden will be revealed at the heart of the 144-metre-high building, which is titled Project R6.

A series of compact apartments will overlook this courtyard from within the tower’s upper storeys, while shops will surround it on the lower levels.

The apartments are designed to accomodate short-term occupants, so few will have a footprint greater than 40 square metres and each will incorporate space-saving measures such as moving walls and fold-away bedrooms.

The project is due to complete in 2016.

The Yongsan International Business District was masterplanned by Daniel Libeskind and is the biggest urban development project in South Korea. Due for completion in 2024, the masterplan was commissioned by South Korean developer DreamHub.

Other projects featured so far from the district include a building shaped like a hash symbol and two towers that resemble the exploding World Trade Centre on 9/11. See all the stories here.

Images are by Luxigon.

Here’s some more information from REX:

Yongsan International Business District “Project R6”
Seoul, Korea

YIBD “Project R6” is an urban boutique residence for short-term business people, young urban professionals, and foreign residents.

Due to the transience of its target users and the short durations during which they are home, R6’s unit sizes are small, including 40 m2, 50 m2, and 60 m2 residences, with the majority being 40 m2.

To meet the trends of its users and compensate for its small unit size, R6 must engender a strong sense of community and its residences must be highly attractive, providing generous views, daylight, and cross-ventilation.

Maximizing daylight and cross-ventilation are also paramount to providing a highly sustainable residence.

In a standard housing tower, 40 m2 to 60 m2 units would create poorly dimensioned and oppressive residences, offering constrained views, little daylight, and poor ventilation, and community would be limited to activities at the tower’s base.

By pulling layers of the typical housing tower in opposing directions, the small units maintain their size, but are stretched into favorable proportions that provide views and daylight from both sides, excellent cross-ventilation, and a strong sense of community through the creation of a central courtyard, roof terraces, and conversation/reading/play pods.

The stretched layers are strategically positioned to guarantee unobstructed daylight into all units, and to create adequate continuity of the building’s primary structure: a concrete-encased steel mega-brace that encircles the courtyard.

The mega-brace supports a shelf-like matrix of walls and floor slabs that define each unit. Into each shelf is inserted a wooden shell containing a bathroom on one side and a kitchen on the other.

A movable wall—using standard compact shelving technology—shifts within the unit to define a bedroom (adjacent to the bathroom) or a living room (adjacent to the kitchen). The wall includes a bed, nightstands, couch, television mount, task lights, and storage.

A high-performance façade—composed of frameless IGUs—emphasizes the remarkable exterior views while interior black-out and shade roller blinds control sunlight and glare.

The floor to ceiling interior façade—also composed of frameless IGUs and equipped with black-out and shade roller blinds—provides spatial relief and a sense of community while maintaining privacy.

The resulting architecture provides views and daylight from both sides, and excellent cross-ventilation.

Community and spatial relief are further generated by conversation/reading/play pods extending into the courtyard.

The pods playfully assume the varying widths of the walls behind such that no views are blocked and privacy in the units is maintained.

Block R6 is a narrow parcel bounded by the planned Mountain Park—including Children’s Interactive Spray Park, Rail Road Museum, Outdoor Amphitheater, and Yongsan Station Esplanade—and the central park of the planned development Zone B3, adjacent to Hangang-ro. By placing the building to the south of Block R6, all units command great views and the building forms a gateway to YIBD from Hangang-ro.

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Client: Dreamhub Project Financing Vehicle Co., Ltd.

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Program: 47,800 m2 (514,500 sf) of luxury housing for short-term residents, 27,000 m2 (290,600 sf) of retail, and 929 parking stalls

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Area: 115,500 m2 (1,240,000 sf)

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Construction budget: Confidential

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Status: Commenced 2011; completed Schematic Design 2012; completion expected 2016

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Design architect: REX

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Key personnel: Tiago Barros, Adam Chizmar, Danny Duong, Luis Gil, Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, SeokHun Kim, Armen Menendian, Romea Muryń, Roberto Otero, Se Yoon Park, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Lena Reeh Rasmussen, Yuan Tiauriman

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Executive architect: Mooyoung

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Consultants: Barker Mohandas, Buro Happold, Front, Level Acoustics, Magnusson Klemencic, Scape, Shen Milsom Wilke, Tillotson Design

A pair of 450 metre-high towers with glass scales by Chicago firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture are the latest of fifteen skyscrapers commissioned for the Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea, following recently released designs by BIG and MVRDV.

Positioned side by side in the fast-growing business and commercial district on the north bank of the Han River, the two Dancing Dragon towers will have a similar design that comprises a supporting central core and a series of wings attached to the sides.

The tallest of the two buildings will be around 450 metres in height, containing offices, apartments, a hotel and shops over a total of 88 floors.

Mullions between the overlapping glass panels of the exterior will incorporate natural ventilation, while huge skylights will span the roof of each tower. A faceted glass shopping centre will create a podium at ground level.

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture also designed the kilometre-high Kingdom Tower, which is currently under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and which will be the world’s tallest building when complete.

The firm was commissioned alongside fifteen other architects to design towers for the Yongsan International Business District, which was masterplanned by Daniel Libeskind and which is the biggest urban development project in South Korea. Due for completion in 2024, the masterplan was commissioned by South Korean developer DreamHub.

These plans follow designs by architects BIG and MVRDV for a building shaped like a hash symbol and two towers that resemble the exploding World Trade Centre on 9/11.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture designs Dancing Dragons, a two-tower complex for Seoul’s Yongsan International Business District

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is pleased to announce its design for Dancing Dragons, a pair of landmark supertall mixed-use towers for the new Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea. The buildings, which include residential, “officetel” and retail elements, consist of slender, sharply angled mini-towers cantilevered around a central core. The design aesthetic is highly contemporary yet informed by aspects of traditional Korean culture.

The mini-towers feature a dramatic series of diagonal massing cuts that create living spaces that float beyond the structure. This recalls the eaves of traditional Korean temples—a design theme echoed both in the geometry of the building skin and the jutting canopies at the towers’ base. The theme is extended in the building skin, which suggests the scales of Korean mythical dragons, which seem to dance around the core—hence the project’s name. (Yongsan, the name of the overall development, means “Dragon Hill” in Korean.)

Dancing Dragons’ scale-like skin is also a performative element. Gaps between its overlapping panels feature operable 600-mm vents through which air can circulate, making the skin “breathable” like that of certain animals.

Towers 1 and 2—about 450 meters and 390 meters tall, respectively—share an architectural language and, therefore, a close family resemblance, but are not identical. In the taller structure, the 88-level Tower 1, the massing cuts at the top and bottom of the mini-towers are V-shaped. In the 77-level Tower 2, the cuts move diagonally in a single unbroken line; they are also arranged in a radial pattern around the core that is perceptible as viewers move around the tower.

“There’s a sympathetic and complementary relationship between the two masses at the level of the cuts, almost as though they were dancing,”says Adrian Smith, FAIA, RIBA. “It’s always important for our designs to reflect and interpret the cultures they serve, and the Dancing Dragons complex certainly does that, although in an abstract and highly technological manner. We try to design in a way that is at once beautiful and focused on performance.”

In both buildings, the mini-tower cuts are clad in glass at the top and bottom, making for dramatic skylights above the units at the highest levels and a transparent floor beneath the units at the lowest levels. This offers the opportunity for special high-value penthouse duplex units with spectacular 360-degree views of downtown Seoul and the adjacent Han River, along with an abundance of natural light.

“The abstract recall of the historic structures gives the towers a unique perspective from the ground and the sky while creating unique interior experiences,” says Gordon Gill, AIA. “The shingled texture of the skin is developed with integrated breathable mullions and self-shading cantilevers. It’s a great honor to be joining several other top international architecture firms designing buildings for this remarkable master plan by Studio Daniel Libeskind.”

AS+GG partner Robert Forest, AIA, notes that Dancing Dragons represents AS+GG’s second major project in downtown Seoul. The other is the Head Office of the Federation of Korean Industries, an innovative and highly sustainable office building now under construction and scheduled to be completed next year. “We’re very excited to be making a sustainable contribution to the built environment of Seoul, one of the world’s great cities, in a manner that addresses the need for sustainable high density development while respecting Korean culture,” Forest says. “YIBD, which promises to become one of Seoul’s most dynamic and vital neighborhoods, will be an example of high-quality high-density design, and we’re proud to be a part of that.”

The design team also includes PositivEnergy Practice, a Chicago-based engineering and energy consulting firm that is designing a series of innovative building systems for the project. Sustainable features of the building system design include triple-glazed window units, which minimize heat loss; an overlapping exterior wall system, which creates a self-shading effect; and natural ventilation in all units through operable mullions. Other systems include radiant heating; fuel-cell cogeneration units at the basement level; photovoltaic arrays on the roof surfaces; daylight-linked lighting controls; and heat recovery via electric centrifugal chillers.

The structural scheme for Dancing Dragons, developed by AS+GG in collaboration with the international structural engineering firm Werner Sobek, features eight mega-columns that traverse the vertical length of both cores. The mini-towers are hung off the cruciform cores in a balanced fashion by means of a belt truss system, stabilizing the structure.

The design of the 23,000-square-meter site—part of the larger Yongsan master plan —reinforces the angular geometry of the building massing and skin. Landscape features, designed in collaboration with Martha Schwartz Partners, include sloped berms that echo that geometry. The site also includes a retail podium with a crystalline sculptural form and sunken garden that provide access to a large below-grade retail complex.