Daechi Dong, Seoul, 1993

The Daechi Dong project is a 60,000 m2 mixed use building set on Teheran Ro, a wide commercial boulevard in Seoul, Korea. The program and site both suggested a layered organization with the core displaced to the south and major spaces oriented toward the boulevard and park beyond.

The plans are developed to support this idea, transforming the building's status as a "packaged" object and adding an experiencial quality from both inside and outside. The Department Store's "streets" are set back from the bowing surface, creating an arc- shaped atrium within which are placed escalators, special shops and signage. An active visual relationship is thereby developed between the shoppers and passers-by on the boulevard. Likewise, the club and offices are organized to take advantage of this same relationship. The ground plane is eroded in plan and section to maximise pedestrian interaction between the street and building and clarify the various entrances to visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

The frontal plane constitutes the most important layer, loosely creating a "streetwall" in conjunction with other buildings aligned along Teheran Ro. This surface is developed architecturally to give the building a unique character in the midst of rather ordinary buildings. Escalators for the Department Store, a projecting balcony for the Club and a terrace for the Offices are the three compositional elements which interrupt the bowing glass surface and symbolize the functions within.