Archinect - News

Meier Partners completes Sorol Art Museum in South Korea

2024-01-30T18:43:00-05:00

Meier Partners has shared news of the recent completion of its Sorol Art Museum design in Gangneung, South Korea. The 336,500-square-foot project is meant to provide space for an immersive dialogue between Korean artists and the outside world and is the firm’s first completed work since its 2021 restructuring.

The building's internal structure is defined by a dual concept that arranges space into introverted and extroverted inter-dynamics based on the aesthetic theory of Korean Confucian philosophy. According to the architects, the external form utilizes the hillside’s natural topography to present the art inside on a pedestal to visitors in a way that also establishes the connection between nature and architecture as another core tenet of their experiences.

Image courtesy Meier Partners/Yongbaek Lee

Curators will have the option of controlling the gradations of light sources, both natural and artificial, inside the large skylit main exhibition space and smaller galleries. In a proj...

RIOS unveils 100-year 'Hyper-Abundant City' concept at Seoul Biennale

2023-09-14T14:44:00-04:00

RIOS has released details of a new 100-year master plan included as part of its participation in the 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (SBAU), which takes place through the end of October in the South Korean capital.

The firm's concept for the 'Hyper-Abundant City' significantly alters the upscale Apgujeong district by incorporating the urban fabric of the adjacent Gangnam neighborhood while extending an existing connection to the Han River. Ecological plots revealing vertical villages that are inspired by Hanok architectural traditions are protected by shoreline islands which the architects say aid in managing stormwater runoffs and flood mitigation. Finally, the plots are connected to each other through an interlinking series of open spaces that permeate the site.

Rendering by Aesthetica Studio, image courtesy of RIOS

The river’s natural systems are relieved by the careful selection and placement of access points which minimize human activity while allowing land to...

Busan to take the lead in trying on Bjarke Ingels' floating OCEANIX CITY prototype in 2025

2021-11-30T09:00:00-05:00

In an effort to mitigate the impending effects of sea-level rise on coastal populations through architecture, UN-Habitat and OCEANIX are once again taking the lead with a new prototype for a floating settlement in the South Korean city of Busan.

The buzzworthy pair had previously made waves with a Bjarke Ingels-backed 2019 proposal for a floodproof habitat which has now officially found a home thanks to a groundbreaking agreement with the city’s government.

Now, with almost 50 centimeters of sea-level rise expected for the southern peninsula by mid-century, leaders in South Korea look to the prototype as a guide to extreme adaptation efforts that could help circumvent the challenges caused by an influx of coastal city dwellers overrunning a country of 52 million whose total land area is roughly equivalent to the state of Indiana.

Previously on Archinect: Bjarke Ingels presents utopian plan for sustainable floating cities to UN

The city proposal claims to be designed to withstand a...

Dominique Perrault on the role architects have in post-pandemic society

2021-11-09T11:48:00-05:00

In my opinion, many people consider architects less important today, while they demand engineers, landscape experts and environmentalists. It seems they no longer expect a comprehensive perspective and sensibility from architects. Architects should become advocates for architecture and fight for their role.

With the completion of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021, Perrault will now pivot his focus to the 2024 Olympic Village plan that will help revitalize Saint-Denis, long-held to be one of the most neglected communes in the French capital region.

This year’s program focused on building resilience in cities as the specter of Covid loomed over the Biennale, causing disruptions in its traditional slate of in-person events. Perrault is currently finalizing plans for a new transit center in Seoul’s Gangnam district that will be completed in 2023.

Previously on Archinect: 2021 Seoul Biennale to open with online event on September 16th

“Going through the pandemic, it seems the proximity and heterogeneity of spaces have become important,” he said. “In order to keep up with the changing demand, new types of investment and a variety of projects are called for.”

The set design from 'Parasite' is getting top billing at next month's Milan Design Week

2021-08-13T14:30:00-04:00

A large wooden table located at the center of the Park family's luxurious living room, which the Kim family hides beneath after their break-in, is one of the key props visualizing the theme of socio-economic class divisions. The table, designed by Bahk Jong-sun, is one of 126 pieces of Korean craftworks that will be on display next month during Milan Design Week 2021, the world's biggest annual design and furniture fair since its inception in 1961.

The Oscar-nominated "Parasite" set was created by production designer Lee Ha-jun based on a sketch from director Bong Joon-ho. Lee is a graduate of Korea’s National University of Arts stage design program. He was introduced to Bahk Jong-sun by the artist Seungmo Park, who also created original pieces for the set.

The Milan Design Week exhibition is themed "All about Attitude" and includes 20 other works by Korean artists and designers in a five-day show that opens September 5th at the Palazzo Litta. Bahk Jong-sun produced several 3D models of the fake mansion and interiors before constructing the set. Vulture has a closer look at the 2019 movie’s production design here.

Seoul's newest art space opens in a triangular concrete shape from Herzog & de Meuron

2021-07-15T14:04:00-04:00

A new home for South Korea’s energy giant ST International is nearing completion in Seoul, adding to the city’s reputation as an emerging art capital. The combination museum and corporate headquarters heralds a new vogue museum building in pronounced geometric form.

Herzog & de Meuron are behind the new SongEun Art Space that will double as an exhibition space for the 32-year-old foundation and the official home of the Korean conglomerate formerly known as Samtan. The Art Space has held dedicated space inside one of ST-owned properties since its inception in 2002.

The 8,000-square-meter new building forms a perfect right angle at the intersection of two busy main thoroughfares in Seoul’s Chung Dam district, its simple geometry serving as a complement to the optic new flagship for fashion house Juun.J that opened nearby in September 2019.

Wood-grained concrete forms an uneven 11-story scalene above-ground envelope that conceals the foundation’s subterranea...

Kohn Pedersen Fox shares images of newly completed Bundang Doosan Tower

2021-04-15T12:50:00-04:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) recently completes the Bundang Doosan Tower in Jung District of central Seoul. With its stacked, interconnected masses, and glass facade what makes this tower so interesting is the 100-meter tall sky bridge connecting the two towers.

Designed for the Doosan Corporation James von Klemperer, KPF President and Design Principal explained, "The Bundang Doosan Tower represents the latest example of KPF’s work in Korea. The design strives for rational simplicity while being highly expressive and impactful. By using office building masses to define a large rectangular void, the composition affords striking views from the highway. The architecture conveys qualities of solidity and strength, and by organizing itself around a central space, it also communicates the value of community."

"In order to construct the skybridge, the 1,500-ton structure was preassembled on site at ground level and then lifted into place over the course of 24 hours." Image credit: Time of Blue...

Robots will be in charge of the design, manufacturing, and construction of the upcoming Seoul Robot Science Museum

2019-02-21T12:36:00-05:00

Turkish based architecture studio Melike Altinisik Architects (MAA) wins the first ever international design competition hosted by The Seoul Metropolitan Government. The first competition of its kind, applicants were asked to submit a design idea to pioneer the world's first robot science museum. The technology for robots to design the built environment is not new to the architecture and design community. However, what makes this competition win so different is the level of autonomy the robots are given and robotic construction techniques used. According to MAA's principal Melike Altinisik, "the new robot science museum which plays a catalytic role in advancing and promoting science, technology, and innovation throughout society is not only going to exhibit robots but actually from design, manufacturing to construction and services robots will be in charge."

Robot Science Museum in Seoul, Korea. Design by MAA MELIKE ALTINISIK ARCHITECTS Visualization by Ediz Akyalçın

During the mus...

Seoul housing development builds traditional hanok designs for a slower lifestyle

2018-09-04T13:36:00-04:00

Eunpyeong Hanok Village was selling locals hanok, the traditional Korean tile-roofed residences that have, after hundreds of years, increasingly been destroyed and replaced by towering steel structures; indeed, not since the 1930s have hanok been constructed in significant numbers. The decline of vernacular architecture in the face of global urbanization is, of course, hardly new, though traditional Korean hanok are a particularly stark contrast to modern city living.

A new housing development, Eunpyeong, in northern Seoul is solely dedicated to constructing traditional Korean hanok houses. The design adheres to certain guidelines on proportion and design, with a low center of gravity, a courtyard, and an orientation towards nature.

The hanok's popularity comes from a need to connect to Korean identity and a desire to slow down from a past-paced economy. The minimalist design confronts the occupant with the amount of stuff they own and orients them to reconsider a new, slower way of life.

South Korean construction companies expect big business in the north

2018-06-15T16:07:00-04:00

In the wake of the Singapore summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, South Korean builders are planning for a flood of infrastructure projects in the northern half of the peninsula. The Construction Association of Korea plans to hold a forum for construction companies, research institutes and public entities on 25 June to discuss possible projects and funding arrangements.

While Koreans on both sides of the Military Demarcation Line appear increasingly hopeful in the wake of recent friendly diplomatic exchanges, it's the deep-pocketed South Korean industrial conglomerates that have started to map out the north's opportunities for development. Shares in Hyundai Asan, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Samsung C&T, and retail giant Lotte are trending up.

2018 Korean Pavilion for Venice Biennale explores hidden narrative between modern Korean architecture and the state

2018-04-23T14:24:00-04:00

In response to the 2018 Venice Biennale's “Freespace” theme, the Korean Pavilion exhibition, “Spectres of the State Avant-garde”, sheds light on a hidden narrative of Korea's paradoxical pursuit of a utopian society through oppressive government policy.

Choon Choi, Paradise Lost 100 Days of Ennui, Desire, and Privation, 2018 © Choon Choi.

Curated by Seongtae Park, founding director of the Junglim Foundation in Seoul, the exhibition is an imagined archive that focuses on the contradictions embedded in the projects designed by the Korea Engineering Consultants Corp (KECC) — a technical consultancy for architecture and civil engineering that the government created in 1963. The KECC dominated Korea's architecture and construction industry, sometimes imitating architectural experiments from the West but mostly following the state's developmental agenda.

Four KECC projects from the late ’60s, which all served as nation-building propaganda, will be highlighted: the Expo Pavilion for the ...

Seoul's first architecture biennale: "A kind of experimental laboratory of urban governance"

2017-11-02T13:52:00-04:00

From Zaha Hadid’s bulbous plaza to a ‘library’ of flora planted across a skygarden, the South Korean capital is using its architecture festival to look to the future – and atone for the costly sins of the past

The Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright is in South Korea's capital reporting from the inaugural Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. "There are over 200 biennales already, so we had to do something different," he quotes the event's curator Hyungmin Pai. "We see it as a kind of experimental laboratory of urban governance, not just for Seoul, but for cities around the world."

North Korea dreams of an international tourist resort — at its missile launch site

2017-10-11T15:53:00-04:00

While headlines are dominated by escalating hostility between North Korea and the US, it has emerged that the Democratic People’s Republic has recently hatched plans to lure international tourists to a swanky new resort. The isolated regime of Kim Jong-un wants to turn the east coast city of Wonsan into “the Pearl of the East” to boost tourism, and hopes to attract $1.5bn in international investment for hotels, offices, apartments and an exhibition centre.

A different kind of logic applies to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's planning strategy of turning the seaside city, and summer retreat, of Wonsan into a hot spot of international tourism — with luxury hotels, golf courses, sand beaches — AND maintain it as frequent launch site for the regime's (potentially nuclear warhead-carrying) missile arsenal.

Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: rewarding obscurity

2016-05-31T17:22:00-04:00

Much will be published over the coming days about the Biennale's national pavilion winners—Spain’s “Unfinished” (with the Golden Lion) and Japan’s “en: Art of Nexus” and Peru’s “Our Amazon Frontline” (with special mentions). It is a phenomenon that conceals the terrain, limiting the perspective of the majority, and inaccurately reduces the dynamism of the lived experience. At the same time, after the fascination with the nominations wears off, it garners those passed over with a certain mystique. In the interest of representation and curiosity, then, it seems fitting to acknowledge a (very) small sampling of the more and wider.

Oh, Canada. This year, per curator Pierre Bélanger, the Canadians overcame “a list of every possible bureaucratic, logistical, and material blockade imaginable multiplied times three” in order to participate in the Biennale. With their permanent pavilion closed for construction and an agitator’s stance, the “Extraction” team’s contribution is all fight. They t...

Korea's tallest tower poised to rival Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as iconic tourist attraction

2015-11-09T13:49:00-05:00

LDF aims to grow the Lotte Duty Free Shop World Tower into the world’s No.1 duty-free shopping destination. [...] Lotte is poised to turn the Lotte World Tower into a tourist attraction that can compare well with Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands On top of that, the company plans to make the Lotte World Tower the largest tourism hub in Gangnam by equipping it with the world's highest observatory (located on the 123rd floor (555 meters high) [...].

Related in the Archinect News:

North Korean architect of new Pyongyang airport reportedly executed by Kim Jong Un

2015-06-29T13:31:00-04:00

North Korea's propaganda machine has spent days promoting a new airport in Pyongyang, showcasing the building's sleek glass walls and espresso stations. But the images, which feature Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, fail to mention that the building's principal designer was likely executed last year because Kim was unhappy with the design.

While the starving population of North Korea will likely never going to enjoy the airport's amenities (under the current circumstances), it has shown more direct feedback to other key-interest projects of the supreme despot, like the 46-story Taedong River Apartment Towers which remain unoccupied from floors 20 and up due to frequent power shortages and unreliable elevators.

North and South Korean archaeologists are working together to excavate Korea's medieval capital

2015-06-12T13:07:00-04:00

The site is located in Kaesong, the old imperial capital of medieval Korea, now a small industrial city located in North Korea, just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). [...] “There were wars of nerves between South and North scholars due to differences in methodologies, but we were in a same boat on the achievement of this excavation.”

North Koreans hesitate to move into Kim Jong Un's shiny, new apartment towers

2015-06-03T15:39:00-04:00

Despite seeing completion last October, following orders from leader Kim Jong Un, only half of the units of a major apartment complex built near Pyongyang’s Taedong River are currently occupied. [...] “The elevator runs only during breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours, so for long spans of time it will be impossible to get to the 40th floor,” the source said. “There isn’t even a place for people to put their bicycles, which are the most fundamental tools for people’s livelihoods.”

Seoul's Lotte World Tower complex passes safety inspections, allowed to reopen

2015-05-14T15:21:00-04:00

Lotte World Mall has finally received approval by the Seoul city government to open up its aquarium and movie theater, five months after the facilities were shut down due to safety concerns. [...] Lotte World Mall has been embroiled in several safety issues since it opened its doors in October. Several construction workers fell to their deaths during the construction of the annexed skyscraper [...].

Previously:

Construction in Seoul’s supertall Lotte World Tower surpasses 100th story – amid safety concerns

2015-03-31T18:30:00-04:00

With the completion of the 100th floor, Lotte Group invited a group of reporters on Thursday to take a peek at the Lotte World Tower, still under-construction, in Jamsil, southern Seoul. The building is currently the tallest building in Korea. [...] While the view is awe-inspiring, the fate of the Lotte World Tower hangs in balance, especially after the 2014 Sewol disaster which resulted in more than 300 people dead.

Previously: Mysterious Sinkholes Appear Near Construction Site of Supertall Skyscraper in Seoul

Norwegian artists plan to open art academy in North Korea

2014-08-28T13:20:00-04:00

The North Korean government has approved plans by two Norwegian artists to open an art academy in the country. Henrik Placht and Morten Traavik travelled to North Korea together for the first time in August to flesh out the proposal and to look for potential sponsors. So far they have received financial support from the Prince Claus Fund. [...] “One of the reasons for us going to North Korea is that we don’t believe in sanctions and the boycott of art,” Placht tells The Art Newspaper.

Mysterious Sinkholes Appear Near Construction Site of Supertall Skyscraper in Seoul

2014-07-30T20:44:00-04:00

For the developers of the world's sixth tallest building near Seoul, a mysteriously shrinking lake and the appearance of small sinkholes in residential neighborhoods couldn't have come at a more inopportune time [...] With about 70 of its 123 floors completed, the Lotte World Tower is now undergoing a review by experts and has put on hold the opening of adjacent low-rise buildings that form part of its complex.

What The Future Looks Like To North Koreans Who Have Never Left

2014-07-28T17:47:00-04:00

[...] One of its latest projects: Inviting a North Korean architect to imagine the future of local design for travel. The Jetsons-style results include hovercraft hotel rooms and cone-shaped mountain villas connected by ski slopes. Nothing looks like it would be that out of place in a 1950s magazine, down to details like an old-fashioned rotary phone. This is what the future looks like to someone living in a place that's been cut off from the rest of the world since 1948.

The project Utopian Tours, initiated by English-born landscape architect turned Beijing-based North Korea tour operator Nick Bonner, was part of the Korean Peninsula’s “Crow’s Eye View” pavilion for the 2014 Venice Biennale (previously on Archinect).

A rare look at North Korean architecture, brought to you by non-Koreans

2014-05-23T11:43:00-04:00

The Korea pavilion has been a part of the Venice Architecture Biennale since 1993, when the optimism of the post-Berlin Wall era made reunification between North and South Korea seem plausible. But getting equal representation from both Northern and Southern architects in 2014 has proved nearly impossible -- architects from the North would never seek individualized attention for their work, their practice entirely determined by guidelines set in stone by "Kim Jong-il's Architectural Theory".

Minsuk Cho, principal of Mass Studies in Seoul and the curator of Korea's 2014 pavilion, thought he'd have to give up on the idea of a joint North-South effort when communications with North Korea fizzled out, without explanation. This year's Biennale's theme, "Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014", is particularly relevant for Korea, considering both North and South remade their political and architectural landscapes after the Korean War, in the midst of mid-century modernism's development and the bi...

New Seoul landmark stirs debate: Architectural accomplishment or landing of ugly spaceship?

2014-03-25T13:04:00-04:00

A curvy futuristic $450M building meant to remake Seoul into a global design capital opened to the S. Korean public Friday after years of debate about its impact on a historic city precinct. And not everyone is happy with the outcome. Designed by award-winning architect Zaha Hadid, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza is a stark contrast to its neighbourhood, which is better known in Seoul for its links to a royal dynasty that ruled for half a millennium and as home to one of the city’s oldest markets.

Seoul unveils $451 million 'spaceship' landmark

2014-03-21T15:11:00-04:00

In yet another display of the city's commitment to 24-hour culture, Seoul is unveiling its biggest nighttime attraction yet in the neon-studded, wildly trendy shopping district of Dongdaemun. Designed by Iraqi-British Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid, and completed at a cost of $451 million, the new Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) opens to the public March 21. [...]the first order of business for Seoul's newest landmark and multipurpose cultural center is to kick off 2014 F/W Seoul Fashion Week.

New Federation of Korean Industries HQ by Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture opens to the public

2014-01-23T17:24:00-05:00

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) announced today the public opening of the new Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) headquarters in Seoul. AS+GG collaborated with engineering firms Thornton Tomasetti and Environmental Systems Design, and locally based firm Chang-Jo Architects on the project.

Find more project details on Bustler.

Lessons from North Korean urbanism, pt. 2

2014-01-10T14:56:00-05:00

I foresee that major urban spaces of Pyongyang, such as Kim Il Sung Square, will be used as “public” space with a greater variety of urban activities, such as commercial activities and show events. [...] The last thing that may happen in North Korea, or the thing that should not happen in some sense, is the Chinese model. Considering the scale of the economy and the potential of the North Korean market compared to China, it is hard to picture radical and massive urban development in Pyongyang.

Part two of NK News' interview with Dongwoo Yim pushes the discussion of North Korean urbanism into the future, comparing potential development methods to those seen in China and South Korea. Focusing on capital Pyongyang, Yim proposes a "Bilbao effect" development strategy that is heavy on catalytic architecture, and soft on strategy -- Pyongyang has very strict development restrictions that keep it from expanding, and will not be remodeling its mass-demonstration public spaces anytime soon.

Yim suggests that those spaces can be relevant in a post-dictatorship North Korea, and that they should be re-appropriated rather than razed for their history. How a hypothetical reunification with South Korea would look depends on how North Korean statehood is interpreted, as either autonomous or an infringement on South Korean land. But the prevailing lesson in Yim's interview is that Pyongyang is not going to be another Seoul, Guangzhou or Shenzhen, and will ultimately have to rely on it...

Lessons from North Korean urbanism

2014-01-08T15:43:00-05:00

They conceive of urban space as space owned by the public, not space for real estate development.

Much of the North Korean news that reaches the United States reads like tabloid hearsay, as glimpses of a totalitarian dictatorship rife with human rights violations are peeked through Dennis Rodman and military showboating. NK News, an independent and private news source based in Washington, D.C., is unique to both online journalism and treatment of its subject, in its rigorous and impressively connected focus on North Korean life and policy. Written from sources both in and out of the DPRK, NK News will most certainly get you to think differently about North Korea.

In part one of his interview with Dongwoo Yim, founder of the firm PRAUD and author of Pyongyang, and Pyongyang After, NK News' Academic / Research Director Gianluca Spezza takes a step back from current politics to ask Yim about the past and future of capital city Pyongyang's urban development. If Korea were to reunify, how would Pyongyang posture itself against Seoul, South Korea's megapolis capital?

Most of Nor...

“Sangam Culture Storage” - Second-prize entry by Kyuseon Hong for Mapo Oil Reserve Base competition

2013-10-18T18:55:00-04:00

It's time for another project feature from the Mapo Oil Reserve Base design competition we recently covered: "Sangam Culture Storage" from second-prize entry winner Kyuseon Hong. Sangam Culture Storage addresses the need of an art and culture facility for the Mapo Oil site, which is already surrounded by notable sports arenas like the Sangam World Cup Stadium, educational facilities, and residential areas.

Previously: Mapo Oil Reserve Base competition - First place entry by Sunggi Park and Hyemin Jang