Amongst the bustling 24-hour shopping district of South Korea‘s capital city, Zaha Hadid has completed a 38,000-square-metre cultural complex with a twinkling aluminium facade (+ movie).
Inaugurated on Friday, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) by Zaha Hadid Architects provides Seoul with a hub for art, design and technology, plus a landscaped park that serves as a much-needed green oasis, and a public plaza linking the two.
The building features a shapely facade made up of 45,000 aluminium panels of varying sizes and curvatures. This was achieved using advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services, making DDP the first public building in Korea to utilise the technology.
Described by the designers as “a field of pixilation and perforation patterns”, the backlit facade is speckled with minute perforations that allow the building to transform from a solid entity by day into an animated light show by night.
“The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape,” said Zaha Hadid Architects in a statement.
The complex is made up of eight storeys, of which four sit above ground level and four are set below the plaza. Facilities include exhibition galleries, convention and seminar rooms, a design museum, and a library and education centre.
Voids puncturing the surface of the park offer a look down into the spaces below, and also allow daylight to permeate the building.
The building opened on 21 March to mark the start of Korean Fashion Week, but is also hosting five art and design exhibitions, alongside a collection of Korean art from the Kansong Art Museum.
Here’s the project description from Zaha Hadid Architects:
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)
The DDP has been designed as a cultural hub at the centre of Dongdaemun, a historic district of Seoul that is now renowned for its 24-hour shopping and cafes. DDP is a place for people of all ages; a catalyst for the instigation and exchange of ideas and for new technologies and media to be explored. The variety of public spaces within DDP include Exhibition Halls, Convention Halls, Design Museum, Library, Lab and Archives, Children’s Education Centre, Media Centre, Seminar Rooms and Sky Lounge; enabling DDP to present the widest diversity of exhibitions and events that feed the cultural vitality of the city.
The DDP is an architectural landscape that revolves around the ancient city wall and cultural artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations preceding DDP’s construction. These historic features form the central element of DDP’s composition; linking the park, plaza and city together.
The design is the very specific result of how the context, local culture, programmatic requirements and innovative engineering come together – allowing the architecture, city and landscape to combine in both form and spatial experience – creating a whole new civic space for the city.
The DDP Park is a place for leisure, relaxation and refuge – a new green oasis within the busy urban surroundings of Dongdaemun. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape. Voids in the park’s surface give visitors glimpses into the innovative world of design below, making the DDP an important link between the city’s contemporary culture, emerging nature and history.
The 30,000 square metre park reinterprets the spatial concepts of traditional Korean garden design: layering, horizontality, blurring the relationship between the interior and the exterior – with no single feature dominating the perspective. This approach is further informed by historic local painting traditions that depict grand visions of the ever-changing aspects of nature.
DDP encourages many contributions and innovations to feed into each other; engaging the community and allowing talents and ideas to flourish. In combination with the city’s exciting public cultural programs, DDP is an investment in the education and inspiration of future generations.
DDP’s design and construction sets many new standards of innovation. DDP is the first public project in Korea to implement advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services that ensure the highest quality and cost controls. These include 3-dimensional Building Information Modelling (BIM) for construction management and engineering coordination, enabling the design process to adapt with the evolving client brief and integrate all engineering requirements.
These innovations have enabled the team building DDP to control the construction with much greater precision than conventional processes and improve efficiencies. Implementing such construction technologies make DDP one of Korea’s most innovative and technological advanced constructions to date.
DDP opens to the public on 21 March 2014 by hosting Korean Fashion Week. DDP will also host five separate design and art exhibitions featuring works by modern designers as well as the prized collection of traditional Korean art of the Kansong Art Museum.
The bright yellow facade of this cafe in Seoul by local studio Nordic Bros. Design Community references the exterior of a Scandinavian house, complete with small square windows and a roof gable (+ slideshow).
Nordic Bros. Design Community designed Kafé Nordic inside an existing residential building at the end of a side street in the South Korean capital.
The designers said they added the yellow house-shaped facade on the front of the red brick building to create something different from the “quiet and peaceful mood of red bricks in the area”.
Glazed double doors at the entrance lead into a small lobby space, then a set of stairs lead down into the semi-basement cafe.
The designers altered the original space by moving the bathroom from the middle of the room to the far edge, and converting the former washroom and part of one room into the kitchen.
The cafe is filled with brightly coloured chairs in different shapes and sizes, and a mixture of round and hexagonal tables.
Black and white geometric patterned wallpaper covers sections of the otherwise white walls, and extends down to cover parts of the wooden floor.
A black-painted unit housing the front of the serving counter, kitchen and drinks cabinet has octagonal, hexagonal, quadrangle, and circle shaped mirrors up its sides.
This shape pattern continues on the back wall, providing borders for the menu that is printed straight onto the painted surface.
Small vases with flowers and animal figurines are scattered through the interior, while a plant grows up into a corner of the bathroom.
Here’s a project description from the designers:
Kafé Nordic
Kafe Nordic, located in Itaewon, Seoul, Nordic Bros. Design Community have completed its design and construction. Kafe Nordic is located in a residential area nearby the street of Commes Des Garcons, emerged as the newest hot spot, and a place that mixed of various food, fashion and culture.
Nordic Bros. Design Community has an in-depth discussion of “Nordic” with the clients; enriched life, new life style, humour, artistic expression based on functionalism, smaller but stronger. So, they developed the space design under the concept of “aesthetic of inconvenience” in which space is situated in a semi-basement built as residential space.
Exterior of yellow house shape, covered with red bricks as a whole, is designed by one of CEOs of Kafe Nordic and it is motif of Lune du Matin pakage, collaborated with Nordic Bros. Design Community. This gives yellow as a main colour among 50 district colours of Seoul and is designed to be able to energise from quiet and peaceful mood of red bricks residential areas.
Meaning of Kafe Nordic is combination that is “Kafe” from Swedish, make household of daily life be more beautiful, and “Nordic”, northern Europe. They offer homemade sandwiches, Panini and tea.
Hall space (25.93 sqm / 7.85 py) is work, in which Patricia Urquiola and Mutina are collaborated, of Azulej collection, combination of 27 patterns. It shows each different characteristics and taste by covering its classical wood flooring and highlights a designer’s expression by having deviation.
The space is filled with the mixture of shape and colour as well as designers and brands; Emeco/ Flototto/ Hay/ Ton chairs and cafe table gives variety to Candlestick Table, made by Yong-Hwan Shin, Light Au Lait by Ingo Maurer and Lune du Matin.
Also, space is completed with graphic primitive for menu, which becomes a symbol of Kafe Nordic from a client’s suggestions: octagon, hexagon, quadrangle, and circle.
8.72 sqm / 2.64 py of kitchen and 2.27 sqm/ 0.69 py of toilet restore order that forms the platforms by adding and moving pipes. Open kitchen is made through a solution to our big worry, selection and storage of kitchenware. Origami (Mutina-Folded) floor and wall linked to a toilet that is a private space and it is a place can give some pleasure to the guests.
This raw concretechurch by Nameless Architecture presents a cross-shaped elevation to a road junction in Byeollae, a new district under development outside Seoul, South Korea (+ movie).
Nameless Architecture, which has offices in Seoul and New York, used concrete for both the structure and exterior finish of RW Concrete Church, creating an austere building intended to embody religious values.
“Concrete reveals its solidity as a metaphor for religious values that are not easily changed in an era of unpredictability,” said the architects.
The introduction of a bell tower and a cantilevered second-floor lobby give the church its cross-shaped profile. Additional cross motifs can also be spotted at the top of the tower and within the lobby window.
“The cross as a religious symbol substitutes for an enormous bell tower and is integrated with the physical property of the building,” explained the architects. “The minimised symbol implies the internal tension of the space.”
A large sheltered terrace takes up most of the ground floor of the site, creating a space that can be used for various community activities.
An entrance leads into the church via a ground-floor lobby, from which a staircase ascends towards the chapel on the second floor. Visitors have to pass through the cantilevered lobby before entering the space.
“This cantilevered space is a physical as well as spiritual transition that connects daily life with religion,” added the architects.
A gently sloping floor helps to frame the seating around the pulpit, while clerestory windows help to natural light to filter across the entire room.
Photography is by Rohspace.
Here’s more information from Nameless Architecture:
RW Concrete Church
RW Concrete Church is located in Byeollae, a newly developed district near northeast Seoul, Korea. It evokes a feeling, not of a city already completed, but a building on a new landscape somewhere between nature and artificiality, or between creation and extinction. The church, which will be a part of the new urban fabric, is concretised through a flow of consecutive spaces based on simple shape, single physical properties and programs.
The use of simple volumes and a single material adapted to the site collects a range of desires created in the newly developed district. Concrete, which is a structure as well as a basic finishing material for the building, indicates a property that penetrates the entire church, and at the same time, a firm substance that grasps the gravity of the ground it stands on, which is contrary in concept from abstraction.
Concrete reveals its solidity as a metaphor for religious values that are not easily changed in an era of unpredictability. Moreover, the cross as a religious symbol substitutes for an enormous bell tower and is integrated with the physical property of the building through the empty space at the upper part of the staircase. The minimised symbol implies the internal tension of the space.
The first thing encountered upon entering the building is the empty concrete yard on the ground floor. This is a flexible space that acts as a venue for interaction with the community while also accommodating varying religious programs. By the time you become accustomed to the dark as you walk past this empty yard, and climb the three storeys of closed stairs, you come face to face with a space full of light.
This interior space has a cantilever structure protruding 6.9m, and you must pass through this hall before entering the chapel. This cantilevered space is a physical as well as spiritual transition that connects daily life with religion.
The chapel creates a sense of peace with a single space, using a slope that is not so steep, evoking the feeling of attending a worship service on a low hill. The subdued light gleaming through the long and narrow clerestory embraces the entire chapel and lends vigour to the static space.
Project: RW Concrete Church Architect: NAMELESS Architecture Architects In Charge: Unchung Na, Sorae Yoo Location: Byeollae, South Korea Area: 3,095.5 sqm / 33,319.7sqft
Collaborating Architect: Jplus (Jungtaek Lim, Hwataek Jung) Structural consultant: Mido Structural Consultants Mechanical consultant: One Engineering Client: RockWon Church
A massive concrete frame wraps over the top of this house in South Korea by A.M Architects and shelters a traditional narrow porch (+ slideshow).
The house near the town of Bongsan-myeon also features an assortment of freestanding walls and projecting canopies.
“The concept of ‘architecture like promenade’, which accumulates spacial experience is well expressed in piled walls with sequential views of the interior and exterior, serving as an element to add a sense of depth and the direction of entry,” said A.M Architects.
Beginning with a straightforward cuboid, the architects removed boxy sections to create voids in the building’s facades and reduced these volumes to surfaces that act as a backdrop for three trees planted around the boundaries of the site.
The rectangular frame that surrounds the front of the building casts dynamic shadows onto the toenmaru – a narrow wooden patio that can be accessed from the study.
A freestanding concrete wall signals the main entrance to the house, which is accessed via a short flight of wooden steps.
As well as the front steps, wood is used for the terraces and to clad one section of the building’s front facade, providing a warm contrast to the stark cast concrete walls.
From inside the entry hall a window directly opposite provides a view of one of the trees at the back of the property.
A corridor traversing the house from east to west culminates in a window on the east elevation that looks out at another tree.
The house’s bedrooms, study and living room are arranged off this central corridor, which incorporates a skylight to introduce natural light into the space.
The main living room at the west end of the corridor connects to the kitchen and dining area and to a large wooden deck that projects into the garden.
Low windows provide additional daylight and views of the gardens outside, while a tall window looks out towards a distant mountain that is framed by the large concrete rectangle.
Photography is by Kim Jae Kyeong.
Here’s a project description from A.M Architects:
MUN JEONG HEON
Architecture like Promenade
The concept of Architecture like Promenade, which accumulates spacial experience, well expressed in piled walls with sequential view of interior and exterior, which servers as an element to add sense of depth and the direction of entry.
The controlled form of the entrance placed in the entry part is an objet for moving toward another space. On going into the entry space, the house, surrounded by horizontal free-standing walls floating in the air, appears overlapped. Free-standing walls of exposed concrete to emphasise horizontal stream are used as a method to attract people’s eyes and become visually magnified.
The light of nature falling long in dynamic angles through the cantilever decoration beam protruded from the flat surface of the wall, the light of nature falling is naturally ushered to the deck in front of the entrance with the property of concrete, and makes the place of main entrance recognised with free-standing walls. Also, the glance extending long along the stream of free-standing wall stays a little far in the foot of the mountain passing over spindle tree fence.
Enter the inside, over the transparent window, we can see a tree in the back yard along the grass extending the floor all in one, which is the architectural element to induce boundless horizontal extension of the space visually.
As soon as we go into the living room along the corridor, we can feel the energy of the extended light going down softly through the ceiling. The composition of walls repeating solid and void serves as an element of architectural promenaded which makes us feel the outside and inside space sequentially with the natural light, and guides the direction of entry with tension.
The inner garden seen from the living room expressing the changing seasons with free-standing walls for selective view keeps an indirect eye on the landscape of distant mountain hanged at the end of exposed concrete free-standing walls through toenmaru connected visually with the study. Such architectural element becomes a device to draw nature selectively, and to makes a metaphoric communication between interior space and exterior space possible.
The domain created through a layer and a layer communicates with nature along with various forms of walls controlling the visual and spatial movements. Organic setting up of interior and exterior spaces connecting to corridor, back yard, living room, inner garden, study and toenmaru creates the architecture of incessant relationship and stream.
These asymmetric holiday homes with vivid yellow walls were designed by Korean office Studio Koossino to accommodate visitors travelling to a botanic garden outside Seoul (+ slideshow).
Studio Koossino‘s architects say they were influenced by the historic stone Moai statues of Easter Island in Chile when developing the design for the six vacation residences, which are located on a gentle hillside in Gapyeong County.
Like the statues, the Moai Pension buildings each have the same shape – a top-heavy volume with a concrete base and a faceted upper section. They are also lined up alongside one another so that each appears to be facing in the same direction.
“Various sizes of Moai have similar shapes,” architect Jae Hwan Lee told Dezeen. “This project has arranged similar mass on an inclined plane, creating a sense of place by emphasising repeating images.”
Bright yellow panels clad the cantilevered upper floors of each building so that they stand out against the green landscape, which the architect says makes them “a milestone” for tourists on their way to the Garden of Morning Calm arboretum.
The colour reappears inside the homes, where doors, staircases and furniture are picked out in yellow to stand out against the white and grey tones of the walls, lighting fixtures and upholstery.
Each residence contains a kitchen on its lower level, leading out to a small patio and pool, while bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the top floors and feature sheltered balconies.
Studio Koossino also designed a single-storey stucture at the base of the site, which facilitates reception areas, a cafe and a rooftop swimming pool.
Photography is by Jae Seong Lee.
Here’s a project description from Studio Koossino:
Sketch of MOAI Architecture
The 6000m2 site has a 10m slope. In order to make active use of the inclined plane, a horizontal mass was inserted in the core. The horizontal mass consisting of a gallery café and a pool at the upper part serves as a stylobate for the cutting area.
An atypical mass of six buildings was put on the stylobate linked to the gentle slope. The atypical mass with a motif of mysterious stone statues, Moai in Chilean Easter Island is remembered as a milestone of Mother Nature.
The outer surface was painted in yellow with a stark contrast to the natural colour while the inner atypical space was painted in homogeneous white to maximise the diffusion of light.
The light that comes through the scuttle and the side slit window induces the volume of the space in various ways. The ground floor consisted of an open deck, a stand-alone swimming pool and a kitchen. The extended upper floor linked bathroom and bedroom so as to allow a visitor to look at the surrounding landscape.
The space of Moai is a place to confess, which feels calm. It has a spacious ground in which people can assimilate with nature and walk along the light and sound of the universe and surrounding landscape.
The Moai, located in Gapyeong, an hour and a half away from Seoul, provides workers running urban life with an opportunity to take a rest in the bosom of nature.
The Moai is perceived as a milestone by people headed for the Arboretum and remains as a memorable object. The mass of the Moai located changing its course little by little along the gentle slope is emphasised as a consistent form. It sends a more obvious message by repeating a mono-typical shape rather than a dispersed image of various planes or forms.
Architect: Seung Min Koo Project team: studio KOOSSINO Site area: 3258.00 sqm Building area: 594.49 sqm Gross floor area: 559.05 sqm Building coverage ratio: 20.00% Building scope: 1-6dong – 2-storey building/ 7dong – 1-storey building Structure: reinforced concrete
Site planGround floor planFirst floor planRoof planLong sectionCross section
Our second project this week from South Korean studio Mass Studies is a series of cafe and exhibition pavilions scattered across the rocky grounds of a museum at the Seogwang Dawon tea plantation on Jeju Island (+ slideshow).
Tea Stone
Mass Studies designed the trio of new buildings for the O’Sulloc Tea Museum, an exhibition centre dedicated to the history of Korea’s traditional tea culture, and dotted them along a pathway winding between the main building and the surrounding green tea fields.
Tea Stone
Unlike the circular form of the museum, the three pavilions were all designed as rectilinear volumes with similar sizes and proportions. Two are positioned on either side of a gotjawal – the Korean term for woodland on rocky ground – so that they face one another through the trees.
Tea Stone
The first pavilion, named Tea Stone, is a two-storey concrete building that accommodates new exhibition spaces and a classroom where visitors can watch and participate in tea ceremonies.
Tea Stone
Positioned close to the existing museum, the building has a polished dark concrete exterior that the architects compare to “a black ink-stone”.
Tea Stone
“The glossy black surface of the building reflects the surrounding environment, that is, the gotjawal forest and the sky, making it possible to exist and give a sense of heaviness and lightness simultaneously,” they said.
Tea Stone
Large expanses of glazing create floor-to-ceiling windows at both ends of the building, meaning anyone within the tea classroom can look out onto a still pool of water.
Innisfree
A shop and cafe building is the next structure revealed to visitors as they make their way across the grounds. Named Innisfree, the structure is glazed on all four sides to create views through to the tea fields beyond.
Innisfree
“Initially planned as a ‘forest gallery,’ the space was opened to the forest as much as possible, and designing all four walls with glass allows one to enjoy the scenic surroundings from any given spot,” said the architects.
Innisfree
Timber panels clad the upper sections of the walls, but were left unmilled on one side to give a rough texture to the pavilion’s facade.
Innisfree
Wooden ceiling rafters are exposed inside both Innisfree and Tea Stone, and help to support the saw-toothed roofs of the two buildings.
Innisfree
The last of the three pavilions is an annex containing staff areas, storage facilities and toilets. The walls of this building are made from stone, allowing it to camouflage against its surroundings.
Innisfree annex
Photography is by Yong-Kwan Kim.
Here’s a project description from Mass Studies:
Osulloc
Context
The scenic landscape of Seogwang Dawon, its main attraction being the tea farm, is located in Jeju Island, at a mid-mountain level, in a gotjawal (traditionally, Jeju locals call any forest on rocky ground “gotjawal”, but according to the Jeju Dialect Dictionary, “gotjawal” refers to an unmanned and unapproachable forest mixed with trees and bushes). The Osulloc Tea Museum, Tea Stone, Innisfree, and the Innisfree Annex are located at the northwestern side of the Seogwang Dawon tea fields, with the gotjawal to the north, and facing the green tea fields to the south.
Innisfree annex
The area is currently in the middle of a large scale development, where to the southeast the Shinhwa Historic Park is being developed, and to the southwest, the English Education City. The Aerospace Museum is immediately adjacent to the site to the northwest, and because of such surrounding developments, the road at the front of the site has been expanded into the 30m wide, Shinhwa Historic Road.
Innisfree annex
As for the walking tour course, the Jeju Olle-gil 14-1 course and the Jeoji-Mureung Olle approach the site from the green tea field on the other side of the road and leads to the northwestern side of the Osulloc Tea Museum, after passing through the front of Innisfree, across Tea Stone, and arrives at the 8km long ‘Path of Karma (Inyeoneui-gil)’, which starts from the Chusa-gwan (Hall) of Daejeong-Eub among ‘Chusa Exile Path (Yubae-Gil)’, and arrives at the Osulloc Tea Museum.
Tea Stone
Tea Stone
Tea Stone, planned to accommodate additional functions, is immediately adjacent to the Osulloc Tea Museum, and is a simple box, extending 20.3 x 11m on the slope of a hill.
The main structure of this building, which connects to the Chusa Exile Path, a Jeju Olle trail, resembling a black ink-stone, is a polished black concrete mass. The glossy black surface of the building reflects the surrounding environment, that is, the gotjawal forest and the sky, making it possible to exist and give a sense of heaviness and lightness simultaneously.
Tea Stone
From the rear exit of the Tea Museum, a 1m wide basalt path crosses a dry creek and connects to the basement level of the Tea Stone, into a dark space, where one can experience and learn about fermented teas. A narrow staircase leads up into a triangular space, the Chusa Exhibition Gallery, on the first floor. The Chusa Exhibition space acts as the front room of the tea classroom. It faces the Tea Museum to the west, and has a dark glass exterior façade, making visible the landscape outside, yet able to contain the soft interior lighting.
Tea Stone
As one passes through this space and enters the tea classroom, where workshops and lectures take place, the preserved gotjawal forest is revealed through the glass facade. From the tea class space, the concrete walls of the Chusa Exhibition space act as pillars that support 10m long cantilevered concrete beams that form and shape the perimeter of the roof structure. Wooden rafters sit in a single direction within the structure of the concrete roof support, and makes up a saw-tooth type ceiling on the entire roof. This wooden ceiling provides a warm environment, and at the same time, allows for a soft reflection of natural light. The structure, without other support, allows for the tea classroom to have three glass sides, and it maximises the feeling of openness as continued out to the gotjawal forest. The fireplace to the north also adds warmness to the space.
Tea Stone
Two sides of the tea classroom, the north and south, used a dark glass, and a clear transparent glass for the east window toward the Innisfree building located across the gotjawal. With a 42m wide gotjawal in between, the two buildings face each other, creating a silent tension and as well as directionality to ones gaze.
A shallow, polished black concrete pool sits adjacent to the glass window, reflecting the building and the forest, heightening an aura of tranquil stillness for the tea classroom.
Tea Stone
Innisfree
Innisfree is located on the highest point of the hill, and is a rectangular building, with the same width as that of the Tea Stone. The two building face each other in axis with the gotjawal in-between.
Initially planned as a ‘forest gallery,’ the space was opened to the forest as much as possible, and in designing all four walls with glass allows one to enjoy the scenic surroundings from any given spot. The materials used for the interior finishes come from the surround natural environment, such as wood and basalt, so that the 34.8 x 11m store and café space functions as one with nature.
Innisfree
A wall made out of cut stone, flush flat on one side, sits at the entrance. Through the glass doors, one enters the Innisfree shop, and to the right is the café, and through the transparent, frameless glass window, one can take in a panorama of the landscape of the surrounding tea fields to the east.
A 3.5m wide deck along the front of the café, as well as the folding doors between the café and deck makes it possible to have all sides ‘open’, making it possible to eat, drink, and relax in nature.
Innisfree
A 6.3 x 5.3m basalt stone volume attached to the north side of the building includes a preparation room on the first floor, and stairs that lead down to the underground kitchen and mechanical rooms, etc., all to supplement the main café space.
Similar to the Tea Stone, the wooden rafters, in a saw-tooth type ceiling throughout the entire roof of Innisfree provides a warm atmosphere and soft natural light.
Along the upper portion of the southern façade is an awning made out of roughly cut shingles, blocking direct sunlight. The north, east, and west sides are finished with milled shingles. All four shingled surfaces will weather together, naturally, as time passes.
Innisfree
Innisfree Annex
The Annex Building holds facilities such as a warehouse and a bakery, etc. and was designed to be seen not as a building, but rather the backdrop to Innisfree. The exterior wall facing the green tea fields utilises a stone fence, a material that that comes from the existing land, and is to be seen as a continuation of an element of the surrounding landscape (Jeju Island is known for the scenic stone fences that mark property, paths, and undulate with its natural terrain).
Innisfree
The land is raised about 1.5m to reduce the 3.5m high stone fence (exterior wall) to mimic the natural topography. Three courtyard gardens are placed inside and outside of the Annex Building, and by planting tall trees, it minimises the presence of the building when viewed from outside. The end of the building closest to Innisfree is the public bathroom, and from there, in sequence are the bakery, the employees’ dining hall, and the warehouse. To the rear of the stone fence, which sits symmetrically to the external wall of the bathroom, is the access and loading space for service vehicles.
Innisfree
Osulloc Extension
Providing more seating in the café, the extension was designed to minimise changes to the existing form and space, with a 3m-wide addition, following the curvature of the café space toward the north.
The interior extension utilises the existing curved windows, with the new exterior curve offset at a 3m distance, and was designed so that the extension is in harmony with the language of the existing building. Following this café extension, the length of the kitchen was expanded in the same direction, while the added cafe space is separate from the main circulation to allow for a space more quiet and calm. The new extension is faced with folding doors, and the entire space achieves a continuous flow to the landscape to the north, in fact becoming part of the outdoor space.
Sweeping lengths of concrete create curving canopies around the perimeter of this golf clubhouse on South Korea’s Changseon Island by Seoul architecture firm Mass Studies (+ slideshow).
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
The clubhouse was designed by Mass Studies to provide dining and spa facilities for the South Cape Owner’s Club golf resort and it is located at the peak of a hill, where it benefits from panoramic views of the sea.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
Described by the architects as being like “a pair of bars bending outward”, the building’s plan comprises a pair of curving single-storey blocks that are both sheltered beneath one X-shaped roof.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
“The two curvatures of the building engage with specific moments of its immediate surroundings, hugging the existing context – the rocky hill to the east, and the vista out toward the cape to the west,” said the designers.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
The curving canopies follow the bowed walls of the two blocks, but also integrate a series of smooth folds that present dramatic changes between light and shadow.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
“From a distance, the appearance of the clubhouse reads horizontal, demure, and subtle,” explained the architects. “However, once in and around the clubhouse, one begins to have a dramatic experience through the perspectival exaggerations and the views framed by the illustrious canopy edges.”
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
The western arm of the building accommodates the dining areas. A banqueting hall and restaurant are positioned at opposite ends of the block, and both feature fully glazed facades that open out to terraces around the perimeter.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
In contrast with this transparent structure, the eastern wing of the clubhouse has an opaque concrete facade that maintains the privacy of club members using spa facilities, but brings light in through clerestory windows.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
Areas for men and women are divided between the two halves of the block, but both lead out to private outdoor pools offering views of either the coastline or the distant landscape.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
A patio is also sheltered beneath the roof to create an entrance for the clubhouse. There’s a skylight in the centre to allow daylight to filter into the space, while a pool of water is positioned directly underneath.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
Here’s a project description from Mass Studies:
Southcape Owner’s Club: Clubhouse
Located on Changseon Island in Namhae Province, at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, is a resort development – the Southcape Owner’s Club – with several complexes that are strategically positioned throughout the dramatic topography of the archipelagic region.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
The apex of the resort is the Clubhouse, which in plan is essentially a pair of bars bending outward. The two curvatures of the building engage with specific moments of its immediate surroundings, hugging the existing context – the rocky hill to the east, and the vista out toward the cape to the west. Simultaneously, the composition of the curved masses allow the building to also embrace what is to the north and south – a grand entry round-about, and a remarkable ocean view to the south, respectively.
Photograph by Yong-Kwan Kim
An open central zone is formed, anchoring the entire complex in a culmination of an impressive entrance patio under a sculptural open-roof, a reflection pool directly below, and a spectacular framed view of the South Sea. To the east are the more private spa facilities, and to the west, the more public restaurant, private dining, and event facilities.
Photograph by Yong-Kwan Kim
There is a contrast that takes place, not only programmatically, but also in materiality – solid vs. transparent. The spa area is mostly designed as a closed mass, with a slightly open 1m clerestory running along the entire length of the solid exterior walls and roof, progressing to a fully open release at both ends of the volume, which allows for an outdoor terraced bath for both the men’s and women’s spas with views out to the South Sea and waters beyond the landscape to the north. The dining areas are all glass-clad with extended perimeter terraces to all sides, offering a sense of openness out to the waters and landscape.
Photograph by Yong-Kwan Kim
The sculpted roof of the Clubhouse is derived through a geometric rigour driven by the systematic structural organisation, which is a response to the three-dimensionality of the natural context. The depth of the curved steel beams are revealed, as if it were a vacuum-formed white concrete membrane, where a series of vaulted concrete canopies ultimately form an x-shaped, exploded circle in plan.
Photograph by Yong-Kwan Kim
The 3m canopies that outline the entire roof not only function as a shading device, but follow the overall architectural language, as the edge conditions change in direction, up and down, from the north to the south side of the building. It adds to the sensuous movements that are portrayed throughout the building.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
From a distance, whether from the deck of a boat afloat the South Sea, or from a distance in the rolling landscape of the island, the appearance of the Clubhouse read horizontal, demure, and subtle. However, once in and around the Clubhouse, one begins to have a dramatic experience through the perspectival exaggerations and the views framed by the illustrious canopy edges.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
The Southcape Owner’s Club Clubhouse is a seamless, continuous, and complete object in nature, with a shape in plan that creates a complex relationship with the surroundings, in rhyme with the ria coastline of the archipelagos that are unique to this region.
Photograph by Kyungsub Shin
Type: Sports, Golf Clubhouse Location: Namhae, Korea Site Area: 23,066.16 sqm Site Coverage Area: 7,955.98 sqm Total Floor Area: 15,101.56 sqm Building-to-Land Ratio: 34.49% Floor Area Ratio: 20.39% Building Scope: B2, 1F Structure: RC, SC Exterior Finish: White Exposed Concrete, Serpentino Classico, Travertine Navona, Broken Porcelain Tile Interior Finish: Serpentino Classico, Travertine Navona, Solid Teak Wood, Venetian Stucco
Photograph by Wan Soon Park
Architects: Mass Studies Structural Engineer: Thekujo MEP Engineer: HANA Consulting & Engineers Civil/Geotechnical Engineer: Korean Geo-Consultants Co. Ltd. Lighting Engineer: Newlite Landscape design: Seo Ahn Landscape Construction: HanmiGlobal Co. Ltd. Client: Handsome Corp.
These tents shaped like worms and doughnuts were designed by young studio ArchiWorkshop for a remote campsite in Yang-Pyeong, South Korea (+ slideshow).
Entitled Glamping for Glampers, the tents are named after the growing trend for “glamourous campsites” where visitors can sleep in tents but don’t have to go without domestic amenities including toilets and kitchen facilities.
ArchiWorkshop designed two types of tent for the rural site, which is surrounded by mountains. The first has a long curving form that can be extended, while the second has a hollow circular plan designed to reference the shapes of pebbles.
The skins of the Glamping tents are made from an engineered fabric membrane that shields the interior from UV rays and is both waterproof and fire-resistant.
Two layers of the membrane are stretched around steel frames to give the structures their curved shapes. Each one also has a glazed entrance to allow some daylight inside.
The architects designed custom sofa beds for the inside of the tents and a Korean artist has painted a series of partition walls that screen toilets at the rear.
Glamping Architecture by ArchiWorkshop offers a unique camping experience. Two types of Glamping units with contemporary design positioned in the middle of gentle Korean nature. From the Glamping site, you have a view of the valley, miles of forest and the stream.
Concept
Why not create a Glamping that gives people a chance to experience nature closer, while also providing a uniquely designed architecture experience? These questions led to the creation of Glamping Architecture in Korea – a place where nature, ecological values, comfort and modern design are combined for an exciting adventure.
We developed two types of Glamping units. Stacking Doughnut unit is inspired from pebble stones. And Modular Flow unit is designed for extendable structure by juxtaposing modular floor panels.
These ideas behind stacking donut unit and modular flow unit are to offer high-standard accommodation in various places. We named them sea, dessert, creek, mountain, cave, forest, river and city.
Materials
Glamping unit uses quality membrane which has characters to UV protection, water-proof, fire resistant. Double layered skins provide better resistance against extreme Korean four-season weather condition.
For the complex geometry of the outer skin, computer animated surface plans are plotted with 2D cutters and welded with a high frequency technique, which gives absolute water tightness. The shape and the position of the structures are carefully considered to give aesthetic emergence during both day and night time.
Interior
Each Glamping unit has toilet booth with art wall finish, which is painted by young Korean artist. The furniture is also designed by ArchiWorkshop which suits well in the limited inner area. The folding furniture becomes sitting sofa during the day and sleeping bed at night.
Architecture firm Grimshaw has completed an ecological park in South Korea where tropical plants, waterfalls and penguins are housed within huge glass and steel biomes (+ slideshow).
Located in Seocheon, the Ecorium visitor centre was designed in collaboration between the New York office of Grimshaw and Korean architecture firm Samoo, and was intended as an exhibition of the world’s climates.
The complex is made up of five biomes, each dedicated to a different climatic zone. In plan, they all feature curved semi-circular shapes that are based on the form of lakes left over by moving rivers.
“The project concept is inspired by the form of an oxbow lake, an aquatic body created by the evolving erosion of a meandering river,” said the architects, who previously designed biomes at the Eden Centre in Cornwall, England.
Curving steel beams create arched rooflines, while lightweight glass walls help to maximise the natural light inside each space.
Visitors enter the complex through a grand lobby and are led first to the tropical zone – the largest of the five greenhouses. This structure has high ceilings that will allow trees to grow in the future, alongside waterfall and aquarium features.
From here, a route moves through climates that include sub-tropical, Mediterranean, and temperate, which mimics the natural ecosystems of rural Korea.
The final greenhouse contains a polar zone, which has a sub-zero temperature and offers visitors a chance to see living penguins.
“Ecorium plays an important role in providing opportunities for visitors to have a hands-on experience of various ecological environments around the world and learn the importance of conservation,” added the architects.
Photography is by Young Chae Park.
Here’s a project description from Grimshaw:
Grimshaw completes first project in Asia
Grimshaw is delighted to announce the completion of its first project in Asia. Ecorium is an innovative environmental visitor attraction at the National Ecology Centre in Seocheon, South Korea. The project, which was secured through a turnkey design and build competition hosted by Korea’s Ministry of the Environment, uses nature as an immersive teaching tool to showcase the world’s diverse ecosystems. Grimshaw’s New York studio worked alongside Samoo Architects and Engineers during the competition phase. Following the successful project win, Samsung Construction executed and delivered the final project.
The project concept is inspired by the form of an oxbow lake, an aquatic body created by the evolving erosion of a meandering river. The masterplan guides the visitor flow through a series of botanical gardens and into Ecorium. Visitors travel through five biomes, seeing, hearing, smelling and touching flora and fauna from the tropical rainforest, cloud forest, dry tropics, cool temperate and Antarctic regions. The enclosures were consciously designed as a continuous series, utilising climatic zones to emphasise diversity while maintaining the connections between regions present in nature.
Ecorium is completely unique in its physical form and design characteristics, and a model of efficient green design in operation. Steel arches delineate the ridgeline of each biome enclosure, supporting a lightweight glazing system to maximise the internal daylight level. This practice promotes vigorous plant growth and eliminates the need for supplemental electrical lighting.
With the vision of becoming a hub for education and research on ecology, Ecorium plays an important role in providing opportunities for visitors to have a hands-on experience of various ecological environments around the world and learn the importance of conservation.
Grimshaw was supported during the concept design phases by the following sub-consultants: Structural Engineering: Thornton Tomasetti Environmental Systems: Atelier Ten Botanical Design Specialist: Zoo Horticulture Exhibit Design: Lyons Zaremba
Located beside the river in Daugu, the ARC River Culture Pavilion was one of the Four River Pavilions at the international fair. Each pavilion presented an exhibition on the Four River Restoration Project, an initiative that seeks to preserve the ecosystems of the rivers Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeong San.
Asymptote designed an bowl-shaped structure clad in ETFE plastic pillows, which give a quilted texture and silvery colour to the exterior walls.
The building sits at the peak of a man-made hill. Visitors enter through a underground tunnel that leads through to exhibition galleries both above and below ground.
The main exhibition space features a 60-metre-long projection screen, which allows moving imagery to surround the space.
“While the exterior of the ETFE clad structure captures the quality of the changing light with the open sky and river landscape as backdrop, the darkened and hermetic interior of the main structure houses an immersive multimedia environment illuminated only by projections of the abstracted and re-conceptualised qualities of the surrounding site,” said the architects.
The roof of the building accommodates a large observation deck, featuring a cafe and a reflective pool of water.
“The architecture enables the visitor’s experience to be an alternating play between a ‘real’ experience of the water, sky and landscape that surrounds the building, and a virtual experience as presented through multimedia,” added the architects.
The ARC – River Culture Multimedia Theatre Pavilion
The architecture of the River Culture Pavilion (ARC) is an powerful formal statement that combines nature, technology and space. The bold curved form of the ARC is perched on a peninsula that juts into the river and surrounded by an awe-inspiring natural environment. The building is a strong focal point set against a stunning panoramic landscape. The architecture is comprised of a vessel-shaped form that is clad in silver fritted ETFE pillows that through a play of transparency and geometry creates an ephemeral effect.
This atmospheric quality of the building enclosure is heightened by light reflections from shallow pool of water that surrounds the base. While the visible portion of the building sits atop an artificially formed landscape, the exhibition gallery concealed below is the space through which the visitors enter. While the exterior of the ETFE clad structure captures the quality of the changing light with the open sky and river landscape as backdrop, the darkened and hermetic interior of the main structure houses an immersive multimedia environment illuminated only by projections of the abstracted and re-conceptualised qualities of the surrounding site. The architecture enables the visitor’s experience to be an alternating play between a ‘real’ experience of the water, sky and landscape that surrounds the building, and a virtual experience as presented through multimedia. This experience culminates on the roof where a large reflecting pond reflects the sky and an observation terrace enables the visitor to overlook the site and its natural surroundings from yet another perspective.
Completed: June 2012 Size: 3,200 m2 Location: Daegu, South Korea Architect: Asymptote Architecture Design Principlas: Hani Rashid, Lise Anne Couture Project Directors: Josh Dannenberg, John Guida Design Team: Brian Deluna, Duho Choi Allison Austin, Rebecca Caillouet, Gabriel Huerta, John Hsu, Susan Kim, Ryan Macyauski, Yun Shi, Penghan Wu, Hong Min Kim Client: Kwater Korea Local Architect: EGA Seoul Structural Engineer: Knippers Helbrig Stuttgard
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
