Hasta La Ideas

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.

The next building in our series from the new Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea, is a skyscraper designed by French architect Dominique Perrault, with faceted glass that will ripple across the surface.

Named The Blade, the 300-metre tower will be diamond-shaped in plan, with its sharpest edges at the north-east and south-west corners of the site.

Shops will occupy the lowest storeys but the rest of the tower will be dedicated to office accommodation.

Voids in the floors will create high ceilings for four separate lobbies, which will provide a variety of meeting places for occupants.

Perrault was one of fifteen architects commissioned to design a tower for the business district, which 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. See our earlier stories about designs for the district by MVRDV, BIG and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.

Here’s some more information from Dominique Perrault Architecture:

Dominique Perrault has been selected to build a tower within the future Yongsan International Business Center in Seoul, whose master plan was designed by Daniel Libeskind.

Dominique Perrault has unveiled on May 2, during a press conference in Seoul, an original silhouette tower reaching 300 meters high: The Blade.

In 2008, Dreamhub, a consortium of thirty of the largest Korean companies, has launched an international urban planning competition for the master plan of Yongsan International Business center (587, 000 square meters). Asymptote, Foster & Partners, Jerde Partnership, Daniel Libeskind and SOM are involved. The project named “Archipelago 21″ proposed by Daniel Libeskind was selected following the competition. In September 2011 and for two months, Dreamhub has ordered to fifteen renowned international architecture studios to design towers within the master plan.

Today, in the heart of historic Seoul, along the north bank of the Han River, the South Korean capital begins a makeover. At the center of public transportation of Seoul, linking the various parts of the metropolis with one another, the Yongsan International Business District is about to know a metamorphosis and to become a new symbol and growth engine for 21st century.

The Yongsan International Business Center, ambitious program of nearly 3 millions square meters, is organized as an archipelago of vertical buildings inter-connected a by large park.

Connected to three other major business centers of the city, the future Business Center is developed away from the large monofunctional complexes, offering beyond the offices areas, housing, shops and many government facilities (cultural facilities, education and transport infrastructure).

Dominique Perrault, the only French architected invited, takes part again in Seoul’s transformation. After the completion of Ewha Womans University, the architect, through a unique architectural style, participates to the identity of the future business district.

By its silhouette and its dynamic allure, the tower establishes itself in the area as a geographical landmark. Its mysterious shape appears like a totem, an iconic figure.

It is not a square or a round building, but a rhomboid prism, arranged in a way that makes it look different depending on the angle of approach. Inspired by its slender shape and sharp edges, the tower has been named The Blade.

Within the effervescence of the emerging architectural styles, The Blade contrasts by being rooted in the urban reality, in a dialogue of light and reflections with the neighbouring towers. Like an optical instrument, its façade fragments and then reconstructs the neighbouring landscape to create a new one.

In the way of a sheath, the skin of the tower is clad with glass, reflecting light and its environment, thus releasing a luminous halo which envelopes the silhouette of the tower. This vibration of the building’s skin appears and disappears according to the viewing angle, creating a living architecture, transforming itself with the movements of the sun and the changes of light.

The project sculptures the void like a luxurious material, offering space, light and views of the grand Seoul landscape. The Grand Lobby, the Business Forum, the Wellness or the Panorama Lobby constitute as many cut-outs in the tower volume, dedicated to promenades and relaxation. This superposition of voids contrasts with the constructed volume of adjacent towers and accentuates the lightness of the tower prism.

The voids offer respirations and accommodate collective spaces open to the landscape. At night, they dematerialize the silhouette of the tower, which appears then like a precious carved stone.

Dominique Perrault inaugurated Ewha Womans University, Seoul, in 2008. He has designed in 2011, for Gwangju Design Biennale, Korea, an “Urban Folly”, named the Open Box.

Client Dreamhub – Yongsan Development CO., Ltd.
Architect: Dominique Perrault Architecture
Architect of the records: Samoo
Engineering: Bollinger + Grohmann (structures), HL Technik (Building services, security, coordination), Jean-Paul Lamoureux (accoustic).

Other architecture studios working on the Yongsan International Business Center: AS + GG – Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture LLP, Riken Yamamoto & FIELDSHOP, Murphy/Jahn Architects, Tange Associate Architects, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, SDL – Studio Daniel Libeskind Architect, MVRDV, 5+Design, SOM – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, KPF – Kohn Perdersen Fox Associates , Asymptote Architecture, REX Architecture, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

Location: Yongsan International Business Center – Sky Island, Seoul, Korea
Concept design: December 2011
Schematic design: April 2012
Estimated beginning of the construction: January 2013
Estimated end of the construction: December 2016

Tower height: 292,50 m
Number of levels: 56 above ground 8 underground

Surfaces
Tower: 128’400 sqm
Average surface per floor: 2350 sqm gfa
Pavilion: 3’300 sqm
Total: 131’700 sqm

Click above for larger image

Footprint
Tower: 2’570 sqm
Pavilion: 875 sqm
Sunken plaza: 780 sqm

Click above for larger image

Program
Business forum: business room, banquet room, meeting room pools, business bar and cafe, conciergerie service and amenities
Wellness lobby: sports and fitness club, running track, water bar, wellness center and spa
Offices: state-of-the-art office space, meeting room pools, executive duplex floor including executive board room
Panorama lobby: world class restaurants, bars and shops, rooftop french botanical garden observation deck

Danish architects BIG have designed two skyscrapers for Seoul that will be bridged by two smaller, horizontally rotated blocks.

Height restrictions prevented the architects from planning taller buildings, which is why they added the interlinking floors to their proposals.

The towers will be located in the Yongsan International Business District, which was masterplanned by New York architects Studio Libeskind, and will provide over 600 apartments, as well as a library, a kindergarten and a gallery space.

Roof gardens for residents will cover the surface of both the bridging blocks and a submerged courtyard will be provided below ground level.

The buildings are planned just around the corner from a pair of towers designed by MVRDV, which caused a stir a few months ago due to their resemblance to the exploding World Trade Centre on 9/11. See images of that project here.

See more projects by BIG here, including their recent proposals for a 150-metre-high skyscraper in Vancouver.

More details from the architects are provided below:

BIG DESIGNS CROSS # TOWERS IN SEOUL, KOREA

BIG’s residential towers in the Yongsan International Business District revitalize the Han riverfront into a new commercial and residential center for the citizens of Seoul.

Situated at the south-east edge of the Yongsan master plan designed by Studio Liebeskind for the Korean development group Dreamhub, BIG’s Cross # Towers will contribute to the developing skyline of Seoul and become a recognizable marker of the new cultural and commercial center of the city. BIG was selected to submit a design proposal for Yongsan International Business District among 19 international offices, including SOM, Dominique Perrault, REX and MVRDV.

The 21 000 m2 site is positioned next to the existing urban fabric in the future development zones of the Yongsan master plan. BIG’s design includes two elegant towers with a height of 214 and 204m. To meet the height requirements of the site, the exceeding building mass is transformed into an upper and lower horizontal bar, which bridge the two towers at 140m and 70 m height. The two towers are additionally connected through the arrival bar at the ground level – and a courtyard below ground.

“The Cross # Towers constitute a three-dimensional urban community of interlocking horizontal and vertical towers. Three public bridges connect two slender towers at different levels – underground, at the street and in the sky. Catering to the demands and desires of different residents, age groups and cultures the bridges are landscaped and equipped for a variety of activities traditionally restricted to the ground. The resultant volume forms a distinct figure on the new skyline of Seoul – a “#” that serves as a gateway to the new Yongsan Business District signaling a radical departure from the crude repetition of disconnected towers towards a new urban community that populates the three-dimensional space of the city.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

Both the upper and lower bridge introduce rooftop sky gardens accessible to residents, allowing for outdoor activities, while a courtyard at the heart of the development is an integral part of the overall architectural design.

Dramatic views towards the neighboring towers and visual connections across the courtyard from the retail zone create an exciting space for the residents and visitors.

The outdoor landscape is envisioned to draw from the charm of traditional courtyards combined with the modernity of the project.

Pedestrians at the arrival deck which connects the towers at ground level can enjoy impressive views to the bridges above and to the submerged courtyard below.

“The typical tower inherently removes life from the city it occupies. Circulation is linear and social interactions occur only in lobbies or awkward elevator rides. We propose a building that triples the amount of ground floor – triples the amount of social interaction and reintroduces the idea of neighborhood within the tower complex.”, Thomas Christoffersen, Partner in Charge, BIG.

The development will offer over 600 high-end residences and amenities, including a library, gallery space and a kindergarten. BIG’s design ensures that the tower apartments have optimal conditions towards sun and views.

The bar units are given value through their spectacular views and direct access to the roofscapes, activating the outdoor realm. The exterior facades are developed to correspond to the different orientations and solar conditions, creating a diverse façade which varies from the viewer’s vantage point and the position of the sun.

Timber baton screens surround the new ground and first floor decks of a renovated house in Seoul by Korean studio Moohoi Architecture.

Located in a densely developed neighbourhood, Julia’s apartment previously had little outdoor space, received minimal natural light and was overlooked by neighbouring buildings.

The new wooden screens provide privacy whilst allowing light through.

Inside the two-storey house, a section of the first floor is removed to increase light on the ground floor.

A staircase at the rear of the house is reconfigured, providing space for a tearoom.

We also recently featured another house in Korea, which spirals up from the ground – see our earlier story here and see all our stories about Korea here.

Photography is by Park Young-Chae.

Here’s a project description from Jae-Kwan:

Renovation (zeep-soori) of Julia’s House

Seocho-dong

Overall appearance of the Seocho-dong area, a representative residential district in Gangnam, Seoul, was quite different from the way it looked in the past. Many of the earlier houses were replaced by high-rise apartments. Houses that were excluded from the apartment complexes were turned into low-rise multi-family housing units.

One of the main reasons Julia’s house could remain unchanged was it couldn’t belong to any type of housing that newly appeared and it was situated on a small plot in the outskirts of commercial and residential areas. Moreover, the owner said she couldn’t afford to purchase an apartment unit in the neighborhood by selling the house. She could neither buy an apartment nor build a commercial building, nor build a multi-household home. The narrow alley near the house was enlarged and turned into a road where cars run all day, and the house behind Julia’s home was transformed into a parking lot which exposed it to the cold in winter. In addition, the house in front of hers was changed to a 5-story multi-family housing unit blocking sunlight all day long. Despite such poor housing conditions, the neighborhood has beautiful landscapes surrounded by Mt. Umyeon and Seoul Arts Center. Moreover, she has tremendous assets in her good relationship with next-door neighbors, Stephano, Moses, and John.

Repair on vision

The first thing to be done to keep living in the neighborhood was to handle views from the surroundings. In particular, the house is laid open to view from the house in front. Although direct exposure of the inside of the house could be avoided due to opaque glass on the windows of the multi-household house in front, the problem was severe from the houses on both sides.

She said one day while she was putting out the laundry, she was surprised to see a man standing on the balcony on the second floor staring at her house, while smoking.

Her inner courtyard and bedroom especially were directly viewable from the balcony of a commercial residential building on the left. So, she had to close thick curtains all the time even during the hot summer. However, the problem was the direction facing the south. If installing a screen, views from outside could be blocked. But, it could also prevent sunlight and wind from coming through to the space. I came up with two ideas for the solution. One was to partially lay bricks to cut off views from the next-door house and the other was to partially install a wood curtain on the slab structure on the second floor to let sunshine and wind freely come and go. Through this measure, all the disturbing troubles were resolved. What was needed most in repairing this house was to fix problems concerning views from the outside, rather than the house itself.

Repair on space

What grabbed my attention among external spaces of the house was the boundary between the house and the city. Usually, entrances of houses are adjoined with an alley. But, the house faces a road where a lot of cars go by due to the new apartment buildings constructed nearby. The alley was turned into a road. In this way, like a scene from a movie I watched, a not-so-funny thing might happen as an open entrance could be blown away by a car closely passing by just in time. Thus, I decided to create a narrow alley that connects the entrance with the city like a conjunction connecting words in a sentence. The alley which was created on a corner of the small external spaces of the house serves various roles. It is the place where Julia greets her father occasionally visiting her family, a place where she lets her neighbors into her yard, a place she adjusts her hair or dress on her way to work or a place which bridges the road and her yard together.

The Court

The house’s external spaces were complicated with miscellaneous things scattered all over. Two jar stands buried in the ground, outdoor stairs, a drying rack with only one wing folded out, a drying rack with both wings available, clotheslines tied between tree branches and drying laundry, a sculpture depicting a naked body which was a work of her daughter, a cross made of tin plate, two boxes full of ceramic works, jar stands filled with rainwater, outside air conditioner unit, a half-open tool box, viewing stones, dog feces, lily, chrysanthemum, good luck tree flowerpots, porcelain pots, morning glory planted along the fence, a persimmon tree, peony, chrysanthemums, a lilac tree, a pomegranate tree, a long bench leaning against the entrance, a broom and a shovel.

The only thing missing was a yard. I created a spacious wooden deck at the height of the first floor in order to secure external spaces to distribute the functions such as storage, garden, drying, exhibition and receiving visitors. In this process, separated the garden and the yard by cutting out the area around the existing tree with same size and shape and repaired the outdoor spaces after removing ceramic pieces to the daughter’s atelier or the edge of the pond.

Repair to Enhance Usability

The clock of the house stopped 38 years ago. One of the reasons to purchase the house was said to be 7 rooms which fit the number of the brothers of her husband. But, the family no longer needs all the rooms. Now, four rooms for each family member, coupled with a guest room, are enough. On the other hand, the family needed more storage space as household goods increased. The structure of the kitchen was not proper for large appliances such as large refrigerators and kimchi refrigerators to be installed. Their lifestyle changed significantly, but their living spaces remained unchanged. In addition, the house was dark. Although the house faces the south, the sunlight couldn’t reach inner spaces of the house due to its structure. Moreover, she has never dared to open windows of a north-facing room because of a parking lot. Now, the situation worsened as the newly built house in front obstructs sunlight and wind from reaching her house. I had to find a solution to let the sunshine reach deeply inside. The answer was unexpectedly simple. After I found a sunny place which is not influenced by the house in front, I cut out a big chunk of the floor of the place, inviting sunlight to the deep inner parts of the house followed by the wind. Now, they can stay cool during summer without an air conditioner and Julia’s voice urging them to wake up in the morning is clearly heard from the second floor, although it may be cumbersome for the son.

Architect: Kim Jae-kwan, Moohoi architecture
Location: 1487-10 SeoCho-Dong, SeoCho-Koo, Seoul, Korea
Program: Housing
Site area: 189.5m2
Gross floor area: 237.69m2
Building scope: B1, 2F
Exterior finishing: Black brick, Spruce wood
Interior finishing: Wallpaper, Spruce wood
Construction: Kim Jae-kwan
Design period: 2009.8~10
Construction period: Dec. 2009 – Mar. 2010
Client: Julia Kim + Bruce Jun

See also:

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House 1 and House 2 by TAKA	House of Wakayama by Yoshio Oono	Nest by UID Architects

This boutique in Seoul was designed by Korean firm Betwin Space Design to showcase crocodile-skin handbags.

Created for Singapore brand Kwanpen, the shop’s exterior façade is clad in a relief comprising irregular prism shapes.

A grid of square boxes hang from the ceiling inside and rectangular recesses in the walls provide display areas for the products.

Photographs are by Pyojoon Lee.

More retail on Dezeen »

The following information is from the architects:

Betwin Space Design

Betwin Space Design is a young design studio starting on 2008 with director Hwanwoo Oh and Junggon Kim, who always are longing for new space and designing with inspirational concepts.

Betwin have deployed designs through experimental studies with new approaches by thinking of the relationship and relativity between the space and things, and the space and people.

They starts their design thinking on the most functional and basic elements such as usage, purpose, the user’s intention, and the spatial condition. Decorative elements are constrained and they unfold the space using the process by theme and concept. They believe that design is a process to express the space itself rather than a tool to design for ‘Design’.

KWANPEN

KWANPEN is a hand-made crocodile skin handbag brand based in Singapore. The KWANPEN Seoul boutique in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, is designed to suit a small number of manias rather than the general population.

The brand’s Seoul store has a design element that is quite different from those of Singapore stores designed to an overall concept. The client who has the artisan spirit of their products, wanted a simple design so that it would not compete with the products.

Answering the client’s request to create a space where the protagonist in the space is the handbag, they started their inspirations from the characteristic of crocodile and gallery where the products can be displayed and exhibited as works of art.

The space concept is ‘Gallery’ where the decorative elements are devoid, and customers feel as if they are looking at works of art. The products stand out in the wall-mounted display boxes in a flood of light.

To deliver the sense of gallery-alike, it was designed to minimize the design elements and colors but only to shine products in shop.

Details not easily recognized and the radiating way of illuminating light were tested in various ways and carefully considered to give a certain effect of full of light in display box.

Unlike the conventional façade that features display windows, the front windows are completely closed, and the products are displayed in an active way through window showcase that it created in and almost reluctant way.

In order to communicate the brand identity, a modular material of crocodile skin is created to cover the whole closed façade surface. Employing brass which has excellent metal formability on façade, patterns of crocodile leathers were encoded and simplified.

KWANPEN express its brand identity itself through the space communicates with urban space and influences its immediate environment.

What appears abstract at first becomes a part of a larger story through the delicate experience and discovery of the space between exterior and interior. It is a gallery where the imagination becomes reality.

Project Name: KWANPEN
Design: Betwin Space Design / Hwanwoo Oh, Junggon Kim
Client: C&P International
Constructor: Betwin Space Design

Location: 100-3, Chungdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Design Period: Sep. 2010 ~ Nov. 2010
Completed: Dec. 2010
Use: Boutique Store (Handmade Crocodile Skin Bag)

Area: 98.9m2
Floor: White Concrete
Wall: Lacquer Painting
Ceiling: Vinyl Painting

See also:

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Stella K Showroom by Pascal Grasso Architectures	3.1 Phillip Lim Seoul Flagship by Leong Leong	Siki Im concept store by Leong Leong