Decimal Building

Seoul, South Korea

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Decimal Building

Seoul, South Korea

Firm

A-Axis Architects

Type

Commercial › Office Retail Showroom
Cultural › Gallery

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2023

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

The Decimal Building is a complex building consisting of an art gallery, an architectural office, and a new media art studio. Architects configure the spatial units within a ten-by-ten spatial matrix system: The building is structured as a matrix with five units along the front and five units along the side, forming a grid of ten units in width. Each unit measures 1.5 meters, and the matrix extends vertically with a height of ten units, making the total height 15 meters. The building consists of five floors, and each of the five floors has a different configuration. Through spatial changes such as the skip floor system, variable ceiling heights, and irregular window and terrace configurations, the natural light inflow pattern creates various spatial experiences within a limited space.

The modular system is also intended to embrace changes in the building's design as time flows and new space requirements arise. The architects both planned the initial design in 2014 and the updated design in 2023, which is almost ten years apart. While the upper floors have remained the same, the architects have redesigned the first and second floors to accommodate an art gallery. By connecting three skipping floor slabs into one art exhibition space and turning it into a unified space, the gallery could provide dynamic spatial experiences while walking through the corridors and watching artworks on the walls. This redesign process felt more natural than forced because the first and second floors shared the same structural and spatial modules and logic.

While the first ten years of the Decimal building resulted in a change of the first two floors, the architects expect more changes to happen in the next ten years. The future changes will create new spatial experiences for the users while keeping the spatial reminiscences from before.