The architecture of the ARC (River Culture Pavilion) combines nature, technology, and design. The bold curved form of the ARC perched on a jutting peninsula surrounded by four principal rivers, an awe-inspiring natural setting backdropped by the Daegu mountains. The architecture's vessel shape clad in silver dot-patterned ETFE pillows that are optically offsetting the structure’s strict geometry. Light emanating from a shallow pool of water at the building's base creates further luminous effects and enhances the atmospheric quality of the structure's technological enclosure. At the base of the building there is a grand stone entry portal embedded in the undulating landscape. This entrance leads to various interior exhibition spaces that flooded with daylight from interspersed skylights above. From here, a grand stair leads one up into the interior of the structure where an expansive, immersive 360-degree multimedia theater occupies the entire interior perimeter of the building. A visitor’s journey culminates on the roof terrace where a giant mirror reflecting pool captures and showcases the ever-changing sky above. The architecture and its surrounding landscape provide the opportunity to contemplate nature writ large and with that the interplay between ‘real’ and mediated experience.
Status: Built
Location: Daegu, South Korea
Firm Role: Architect
Additional Credits: 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