South Korean Architecture

Turkish practice Melike Altınışık Architects (MAA) has won an international competition for the design of a Robot Science Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the competition called for a “world first” museum to support public education in robotics, and increase public interest in robots.

Multidisciplinary practice SuperSpatial was selected as one of the 6 finalists for the South Korean Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. Their design explores the future of e-waste through an architecture that re-uses thousands of obsolete computer parts as a construction material. Shaped as an amphitheater for temporary events, the project uses the Expo as an occasion to think about the global problem of e-waste by using a pavilion as a critical medium.

Zooraji, Olson Kundig's latest, takes its inspiration not from its site (the roof of a department store) or context (the futuristic city of Busan), but from a story. Aesop's The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, to be precise. 

This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "A Once-Maligned Concrete Megastructure in Seoul is Revitalized - Sans Gentrification".

Designers Studio Ohk have released details of their architecturally-inspired “Urban Soaps” range, reflecting built fragments of the South Korean capital Seoul. The four designs reference traditional and modern architectural elements in Seoul through their shapes and colors, “curated and blended by the team to highlight the city’s personality.”

Colombian professor Francisco Sanin and South Korean architect Lim Jaeyong were appointed as co-directors for the 2019 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The announcement is followed by an inaugural edition held in 2017 with 460,000 visitors in total.

In the bustling streets of Seoul, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza by Zaha Hadid Architects has become a landmark for its atypical architecture. A complex yet effortless building, the Design Plaza encapsulates the energy of the cultural hub in Dongdaemun, an area that has itself earned the nickname of the "town that never sleeps" thanks to its late-night fashion market.

Traditionally, Winter Olympics stadiums have stuck to a design that obscures the sky and protects against the elements in order to keep the guests warm. This year, the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics organizing team wanted to try something different. Guests will watch the three-hour opening ceremony at the PyeongChang Olympic Main Stadium – and it will be roofless.

2017 was another banner year for skyscraper construction.

The team of Simplex Architecture, Dongsimwon and studio201 has been selected as the winners of the Yisabu Dokdo Memorial Park International Competition. The international competition asked designers to create a new memorial and monumental park in the city of Samcheok, South Korea, that would tell the story of the voyage undertaken by legendary general Yisabu to the islands of Usanguk and Dokdo in 512 A.D. Located on a 24,600-square-meter site overlooking the Sea of Japan, the project will serve as center of education, experience and tourism while engaging the essential elements of earth and water as well as the five senses.