South Korean firm Haeahn Architecture, alongside New York-based H Architecture, has shared a video and photographs of their National Assembly Communication Building project in Seoul, South Korea. 

The nearly 255,686-square-foot structure is located inside the National Assembly complex, the home of South Korea’s national legislature.

The complex was planned as an open space that reflects a pluralistic ideology, while also staying in touch with the existing components of the site. To meet the needs of multiple user groups, the architects say the building’s design prioritizes flexibility and expandability. 

The project site was described as a green space surrounded by lush trees. The firms aimed to preserve this identity by making the building low and on a human scale, ensuring its height would not exceed four stories and be set amongst the trees. The rooftop also reflects these surroundings through the featured green zone. 

The architects utilized a horizontal zoning plan that distributes varying functions across each floor of the building. This increases spatial usability and work efficiency while maintaining the independence of each facility. 

The four cores surrounding the central atrium provide a traffic flow system by user and a security system by facility. The building’s optimized structural modular system provides the interior paces flexibility in response to changing needs in the future. 

It was crucial for the architects to create a space that not only accommodates all of the building’s users but brings them together. Therefore, they created a spatial identity under the theme of “Encounter and Communicate,” which aims to ensure that groups interact through mutual cooperation and dialogue. 

Various spaces were designed to foster these connections. Additionally, common spaces and rest areas were established between each functional space in order to continuously connect the building, both indoors and outdoors. The result is a space that enables communication between people, the spaces themselves, and between nature and its urban surroundings.

Video courtesy Haeahn Architecture on YouTube