Seoul: The Latest Architecture and News

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2017 was another banner year for skyscraper construction.

According to the 2017 Tall Building Year in Review, the annual web report from The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), a record-breaking 144 buildings 200 meters tall (656 feet tall) or higher were completed in 2017, led by the 599-meter-tall Ping An Finance Center and 555-meter-tall Lotte World Tower.

In the report, CTBUH outlines this year’s trends in tall building design. Notably, 2017 proved to be the most geographically diverse year in history for tall buildings, with 69 cities across 23 countries completing new towers, an significant increase from 54 cities and 18 countries in 2016. Of those numbers, 28 cities and 8 countries completed their new tallest building.

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Dominique Perrault Architecture has been selected as the winner of an international competition to design the Gangnam International Transit Center, a new multimodal hub and shopping center located in the heart of Seoul, South Korea.

Called Lightwalk, the project will be centered around a below and above ground axial corridor described by the architects as  “minimalistic, yet incredibly powerful gesture” in dialogue with the nearby Han River, Tancheon Stream and the mountains beyond. Within the “groundwalk” and surrounding area will be exhibition spaces, cafes, restaurants, offices and an educational center. Underground spaces will be located beneath a crystalline glass roof, connecting program back to the city and natural light and air.

See the full description from the architects below.

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Currently on display outside the Zaha Hadid-designed Dongdaemum Design Plaza as part of the 2017 Seoul Biennale, the Groundscape eXPerience Pavilion is a 30-meter-long steel grid structure featuring a sequence of 28 experiments of underground architecture by 60 university students from Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) and EWHA Women's University (Seoul, South Korea).

Led by professor Dominique Perrault, the installation is a scale model of the 2.7 kilometer Seoul city central Euljiro underground gallery, an underutilized market space in the city center. The 28 “urban fossils” explore possibilities for the revitalization of the gallery, reimagining the structure as an urban link that is part of a larger “network of urban substance and material.”

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