Located in Paju Book City, the building is “Bookshelf Type,” where the area contains various publishing houses, and buildings, restricted to four stories, appear as volumes, or books, along the shelf or street.

Open Books publishes a variety of translated books, from Russian Literature to German Philosophy. The initial concept for the space is derived from the act of translation; two parallel lines, ie languages, which appear to converge at a single point, but never actually meet. The interiors of each bar building are sectionally diverse, organized by ramps connected at differing levels.

From the Han River on one side to the Simhak Mountain on the other, each bar building is organized through folded walls to produce continuous perception and circulation where enclosed bar spaces are layered with interstitial voids. The two bar buildings are composed of an artificial landscape connecting the varying levels; the unbuilt Center for Translators has circulation centered around a folded translucent glass screen, where light penetrates as one moves through. The built office building is navigated through a folding concrete wall which wraps the edges of the structure as the subject engages the folded boundary.



Type Commercial - Factory
Location : Paju Korea, Republic of  
Building status : built in 2005 
Site size : 1518 m2 
Building area : 727 m2 
A project by: himma studio, Jun Sung Kim, Hailim SUH

himma studio