The ABC Building is located around Sunjung-Reung which is a beautiful park which has royal tombs of Chosun dynasty in Kang-nam area in Korea. The boastful - glaring buildings in Kang-nam block view from the site to the royal tombs park while the roof of five story building suddenly opens view to beautiful landscape of the park. The building can be regarded as “Architectural Mountain” and the roof terrace as “Architectural Summit” and . People climbs up the building by narrow exterior stair alley. These five stair alleys are cascaded like small stream falls or stepped vegetation wall garden. The passenger meets silent and beautiful sceneries from inside of bricks stair alley wall and outside from the royal tombs park to reach the top of the building.

In terms of building material, a building starts with laying a piece of brick on the ground. The black brick is the most visible material in the Building. The stair alley wall consists of a steel frame system and dry brick wall fabrication façade without traditional mortar masonry. It creates transparent experience of solid brick wall with multiple brick wall layers. A building starts with a piece of brick was completed with a piece of brick as well.

Besides of its innovative brick construction method, the potential of this building begins with its simplicity which would be represented by clear layout and building plan, and in the same materiality of the wall. Such as simple frame work or architectural consistency could be a sturdy foundation upon which to develop and contain well-being architectural aesthetic. Architecture is the construction of simplicity and the simplicity of construction, understood simultaneously.

Floor Plan

Architects : Wise Architecture Location : 695-39 Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea Project Manager : Lee Jeong Hoon Area : 163.0 sqm Project Year : 2012 Photographs : Chin HyoSook

Wise Architecture

JDS Architects have been commissioned by Shinyoung Co. to design the Officetel Building in the new development area of Gangnam Bogeumjari District in Seoul, South Korea.

The Officetel Building is a hybrid program between an office and hotel as a self-contained living environment. Through official use and living arrangements, the hotel spaces will be conditioned and designed as compact apartments.

The 10 story building consists of retail, amenities and 700 small apartment units with about 25 M2 for a single person. We have embraced the hill on our site as an important landscape element in the positioning our building. The courtyard is open towards the hill allowing the nature qualities to become an integrated part of our site and the new building.

The building also defines a new dimension for the officetel typology. On the street side, we have shifted the units to give space for terraces. This shifted facade creates a special identity for the whole building complex – a lively and exclusive appearance that becomes the trademark for this unique building. The cascade of terraces encourages the communication between the neighbors and strengthens the feeling of community within the building.

Construction starts in the autumn of 2012.

project info: project: gwell estate officetel type: commission size: 38,000 sqm (24,000 mqs above ground, 14,000 sqm underground, 700+ units) budget: €33 million client: shinyoung collaborators: junglim architects location: seoul, south korea status: completed

JDS Architects

Shinseon Play is an architecture based on a charming Korean traditional fantasy. Shinseons (신선) are fanciful Taoist hermits widely shared in East Asian mythology originating from 2500 years ago. They live on top of high mountains or above clouds, transcending the hustle-bustle of the human world of joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure. A rough equivalent to the ancient Greek gods, they occasionally descend to the human world to intervene or work miracles. In Korea, there is a phrase “Shinseon Noreum (신선놀음)” which means playing like a Shinseon-living above clouds without agony, becoming an existence beyond time.

Each object is an air balloon structure, and carefully controlled so that they would gently sway by the pre-programed air pressure difference or human interaction; the clouds be imbued with life. A trampoline will be placed under the cloud, and one can jump up punctuating the cloud and mist above; instantly coming up and down heaven and earth. A wooden bridge to ascend up the cloud will lead to the grass meadow in front of the traditional Korean ‘Hanok’ which will be transformed into a heavenly palace (玉皇上帝 宮) above clouds. While walking above the cloud with mists coming out from the side, one will experience a magically transformed imagery as well as a wonderful cool down space for this summer. When one looks back from this meadow, you will face the grandeur of Kyungbok palace, Inwang Mountain and the old Japanese colonial Ki-mu-sa building above this Shinseon cloud.

The project is based on this myth that is still implicit among Koreans’ collective unconsciousness nowadays. It focuses on staging this heavenly feeling, less by an “object image” which dominated the pavilion typology so far, but image as a scene or stage more akin to scenography.

The experience above and below the cloud would be drastically different, where above one can walk on the clouds, enjoying the summer sun besprent with mists, and below one can be soaked in shadows and lean / sit on the grass and take a nap or read books. The project team wanted to celebrate in full force not only the shadow but also the light that a pavilion can give to human being.

Project team: Moon Ji Bang, a collaborative team of three architectural firms: Choi. Jang Won (Farming Architecture) + Kwon. Kyung Min (Plain Works) + Park. Cheon-Kang (Park Cheon Kang Architects) Winning project for the YAP (Young Architects Program) in Seoul, by MMCA/MoMA/Hyundai Card.

Moon Ji Bang