Korean architect Eun Young Yi’s proposal was selected in 1999 from 235 competition entries as the plan for the new central library of the City of Stuttgart.

The building of the 80-million Euro (about $108 mil. US) Stadtbibliothek am Mailänder Platz  began three years ago and the opening ceremonies took place last month.

Yi has created a monolithic cube with two floors underground and nine above. Essentially all of the building, both inside and out is white. The main library floors circle an open-plan with the levels connected by open staircases. Books line the outer walls of each floor.




As a cool nod to the fact that the building is a storehouse of words, the word “library” is installed in four languages on the outside walls. On the North wall in German (the local language), West in English (lingua franca), South in Arabic (the language of ancient knowledge and of Stuttgart’s sister city, Cairo) and East in Korean (Yi’s native language).

Yi Architects is based in Cologne and Seoul

Jeju is an island formed by volcanic activities and celebration of its distinctive geological features was one of the main objectives of the brief. The design started from answering the brief which explicitly requested that the scheme to symbolise the volcanic landscape of Jeju consists of caves and mounds.



poly.m.ur viewed these two geological feature in terms of their morphological forma-tions – one as constructive space (volcanic mounds) and the other one as subtractive space (volcanic caves), and were repre-sented in the formation of the massing of our scheme.

poly.m.ur also wanted the centre to be recognised as a ‘place’ rather than an ‘image’, a direct representation of volcanic forms, while its inspiration taken from the volcanic form is still recognisable.



The roof of the scheme is formed by following the existing land-scape and gently lifting up some areas of the site forming terraced pathways and viewing decks.



B1 Floor plan

Where the landform has been lifted, sunken terraces are formed to counter the action. The overall circulation strategy is central to the place making which forms a knot creating crossings and loops in, out and around the roofscape, sunken terraces and the interior spaces. The seam-less flow of people in and out of the building was central to the design of the scheme.

Architect: poly.m.ur
Project Year: 2009
Project Team: Homin Kim, Chris S. Yoo, Suk-hee Kwon, Yei-seul Oh, Eun-yu Lee, Kwang-ho Chung
Location: Jeju, Korea
Project Area: 71,000SqFt.
Photography: poly.m.ur

poly.m.ur

La-cubo is the only commercial facility located on the Lake Park site at the center of the complex. Against the backdrop of a lake and an outdoor stage, La-cubo faces a waterpark, the Cheonan Culture and Art Center, equipped with the most optimum location conditions in the complex.



On the other hand, it will have to express its own characteristics among large-scale facilities in the complex. The word La-cubo is a compound Italian word meaning cube. It also has another meaning of ‘dicing certain materials’, maybe stemming from the building’s strange shape.

This building has been planned by mainly considering the requirements and location conditions possessed by a commercial facility, and many views that can show various backgrounds by using the surrounding environment and the creation of indoor, outdoor spaces that can attract many facility users to the maximum.



Various indoor andoutdoor spaces created by two ‘ㄷ’ shape simple line plates with zigzag shapes, organically connects the inside and the outside while showing various views. Although small in scale, we hope La-cubo will become a unique ‘cultural ICON’ as the central location in the complex going forward. Furthermore, it has a special meaning in that Lake Park, where this building is located, was selected the 8th great landscape among ’12 Cheonan Landscapes’ as Cheonan’s representative tourist attractions on Jan. 22, 2009 by Cheonan City.

Architects: JUNGLIM Architecture
Location: Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea
Client: No Hyon Tae
Site area: 1,000 sqm
Photographs: Namgoong Sun

JUNGLIM Architecture

Beautiful Seashell Shape for Opera House designed by OODA  in busan, south korea. The iconic building reminiscent of a seashell is positioned on the edge of the sea symbolically projecting harmonious sounds to the world.









The exterior undulates to engage the existing topography while creating a subdivided interior for cultural activities that integrates necessary program requirements for operas, musical venues, theater and sporting events. Fluid bands wrapping the structure blur the boundaries between internal and external environments while introducing natural light and cross ventilation.





The grand opera auditorium features flexible stage locations and seating arrangements with rotating platforms enabling large and small scale events to occur within the space.

accommodating the needs of different concerts, visitors may have a variety of perspectives to view performances with a central stage and perimeter seating or a single view with all seating oriented in the same direction. a secondary multipurpose theater within the smaller volume is interconnected with a banquet hall, convention center, shopping, cafes and restaurants.

OODA