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Songwon Art Center
Songwon Art Center
Seoul, South Korea
Project Featured on Jan 29, 2014
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Songwon Art Center
Seoul, South Korea
Project Featured on Jan 29, 2014
Buk-Chon, where Songwon Art Space is
located, is one of the few areas that were less affected by the heavy wave of
development that has been sweeping through Korea since the fifties. The
townscape is based on an irregular network of streets that weave through the
area, where Han-Ok is the dominating architectural typology.
During
the past 10 years Buk-Chon has seen lots of buzz primarily caused by the
newfound interest of the public on the traditional townscapes. Han-Oks
(traditional Korean houses) have become a subject of admiration again, and many
commercial/cultural businesses have been brought into the area to take
advantage of this setup. In this social context, it is consensual that any new
development in the area intrinsically faces the challenge to simultaneously
conserve existing values, and contribute in a new way to what already is.
Not
surprisingly, with our project we faced numerous restrictions and conditions
that were inherent to the site. The design development process took an unusual
amount of time – as we neither wanted this project to become a compromise to
the restrictions nor a mere negotiation between the contextual obligations. The
design is a result of optimizing the parameters, sensitively reacting to the
surrounding and simultaneously developing a rigorous logic.
A Pre-determined Shape
The
site is an irregularly shaped piece of land, roughly 297 sqm in size, sitting
in an entrance location to the Buk-Chon area when approached from the city
center. The two adjacent roads meet in a sharp angle, with the main street
sloping up towards the site. These situations give this small plot an unusually
strong recognizability.
The
massing of the building is largely limited by two conditions – the shape of the
plot determined the plan of the building, and the adjacently located House of
Yoon-Bo-Sun, a cultural heritage site, determined the elevation of the building
to be cut in an angle in relations to sightline conservation. The volume
trapped in these restrictive borders could only contain roughly two thirds of
the maximum buildable floor area above ground (90% out of max. allowed 150%
FAR). Therefore, much of the exhibition program had to be located below
ground-level.
The
resulting building is three floors below ground level and two floors above. The
bottom two floors are used as an exhibition space, the semi-underground B1
level as parking, and the top two floors house a commercial restaurant and
other social functions.
Structure - Silent Acrobat
Another
condition with the site was the parking requirement – 7 spots needed to be
provided within the plot area. The only way to suffice this condition was to
designate a semi-underground level that is made accessible from ground level
through the use of a piloti scheme. We had to come up with a structural scheme
that simultaneously lets us fit everything within the relatively small site and
also lift the building up. By making the piloti structure out of two triangular
walls, forming half a pyramid, we were able to also house the entrance and
staircase leading into the main space below ground within the structural
element.
With
the exception of the sloping roof, the aboveground mass is generally
represented in a set of strictly horizontal or vertical concrete planes,
forming a hard shell-like unibody structure. The Mass is then balanced on the
aforementioned ‘half pyramid’ on one side, and a leaning column on the other.
This composition allows the building to be seen as performing a ‘silent
acrobatic act,’ slightly floating above ground – while still staying close to
it.
Vertigo Moment, Two Windows at the Corner
In
section, the building can be seen as two programs separated by the parking area
– the social function of the restaurant above, and exhibition spaces below. As
the sharp corner of the site is approached by pedestrians, one encounters two
acrylic windows each revealing one of these two spaces – a curved, seamless
window to the top, revealing the 7-11m high space to the above, and a
triangular window within the base of the pyramid reveals the 8m space below,
resulting in a sudden unexpected moment of vertigo as the entire height of the
building (some 19 meters) suddenly presents itself.
Two kinds of Light Conditions
The two main volumes differ in the way they
deal with lighting conditions. The underground volume needs to provide varying
lighting conditions depending on the requirements of the exhibitions it houses
– thus flexibility is essential, and the system relies heavily on artificial
lighting. The exception is made in the entrance to the exhibition space, where
the previously mentioned triangular skylight dramatizes the entry sequence by
providing natural light into the vertical space. One may think of a skylight as
an object that is looked at from below, but in this case the triangular window
greets the visitors as an opening in the ground and then later changes its
identity into a skylight as we descend into the gallery. We think of this as an
adequate, surprising way to begin the gallery experience.
The
walls of the social/ restaurant space above ground are mostly solid – with the
somewhat limited exceptions of a few slits and small windows that were devised
to provide ventilation and some amount of view towards the outside. The main
source of lighting here is the skylight that takes up a large portion of the
sloped roof – a response to the cultural heritage regulation from an adjacent
building. The ceiling is composed of 3 layers of steel components – skylight
frame, structure and louvers – each of these layers are oriented differently
for a diffused lighting effect. The skylight itself is made of triple glazed
panes with an embedded layer of expanded steel mesh which aids the process of
primary sunlight filtering.
The
steel louver system is applied to the ceilings of both the restaurant and
exhibition spaces, albeit for different purposes. If the roof louvers were
installed to control the daylight, the basement ceiling louvers were to add
flexibility to the artificial lighting system. This gesture of using the same
louver system in different ways was also to have the two spaces create a visual
coherency.
The exhibition space has a polished concrete
floor and white walls, whereas the more social restaurant space keeps the
naturally exposed white concrete as its finished surface. The two spaces share
a somewhat understated material and color scheme, but vary subtly according to
the functions of the spaces.
Silent, but Unfamiliar Pleated Wall
It was suggested by the client that we use a
material manufactured by a specific steel manufacturer – who is also an
important supporter of Songwon Culture Foundation. This particular steel
company has the technology to roll paint various colors and patterns onto
rolled galvanized steel sheets. These products are commonly used as a
reasonably priced exterior finishes, normally in a panel format.
With
the help of the metal company we were able to apply a customized finish that
resembles concrete or perhaps weathered zinc, in somewhat of a distressed tone.
This finish was applied through the roll printing process and then these
coloured Galvanized sheets were folded and cut into V shaped channels of 5
different widths – ranging from 3 to 7cm in 1cm increments. These channels wrap
the exterior of the building forming a row of full height vertical strips, in a
randomized array of the five different widths. Absent of horizontal breaks,
this exterior finish gives an illusion of being casted in a single piece,
rather than being an assembly of several smaller pieces. The intention was to
have the building perceived as an ambiguous monolithic mass.
The
resulting pleated texture, combined with the varying boundary conditions of the
building plan – having straight and rounded portions - reacts with the natural
lighting conditions in an unpredictable way and obscures the materiality and
construction of the exterior. Here the building becomes ‘silent but
unfamiliar.’
located, is one of the few areas that were less affected by the heavy wave of
development that has been sweeping through Korea since the fifties. The
townscape is based on an irregular network of streets that weave through the
area, where Han-Ok is the dominating architectural typology.
During
the past 10 years Buk-Chon has seen lots of buzz primarily caused by the
newfound interest of the public on the traditional townscapes. Han-Oks
(traditional Korean houses) have become a subject of admiration again, and many
commercial/cultural businesses have been brought into the area to take
advantage of this setup. In this social context, it is consensual that any new
development in the area intrinsically faces the challenge to simultaneously
conserve existing values, and contribute in a new way to what already is.
Not
surprisingly, with our project we faced numerous restrictions and conditions
that were inherent to the site. The design development process took an unusual
amount of time – as we neither wanted this project to become a compromise to
the restrictions nor a mere negotiation between the contextual obligations. The
design is a result of optimizing the parameters, sensitively reacting to the
surrounding and simultaneously developing a rigorous logic.
A Pre-determined Shape
The
site is an irregularly shaped piece of land, roughly 297 sqm in size, sitting
in an entrance location to the Buk-Chon area when approached from the city
center. The two adjacent roads meet in a sharp angle, with the main street
sloping up towards the site. These situations give this small plot an unusually
strong recognizability.
The
massing of the building is largely limited by two conditions – the shape of the
plot determined the plan of the building, and the adjacently located House of
Yoon-Bo-Sun, a cultural heritage site, determined the elevation of the building
to be cut in an angle in relations to sightline conservation. The volume
trapped in these restrictive borders could only contain roughly two thirds of
the maximum buildable floor area above ground (90% out of max. allowed 150%
FAR). Therefore, much of the exhibition program had to be located below
ground-level.
The
resulting building is three floors below ground level and two floors above. The
bottom two floors are used as an exhibition space, the semi-underground B1
level as parking, and the top two floors house a commercial restaurant and
other social functions.
Structure - Silent Acrobat
Another
condition with the site was the parking requirement – 7 spots needed to be
provided within the plot area. The only way to suffice this condition was to
designate a semi-underground level that is made accessible from ground level
through the use of a piloti scheme. We had to come up with a structural scheme
that simultaneously lets us fit everything within the relatively small site and
also lift the building up. By making the piloti structure out of two triangular
walls, forming half a pyramid, we were able to also house the entrance and
staircase leading into the main space below ground within the structural
element.
With
the exception of the sloping roof, the aboveground mass is generally
represented in a set of strictly horizontal or vertical concrete planes,
forming a hard shell-like unibody structure. The Mass is then balanced on the
aforementioned ‘half pyramid’ on one side, and a leaning column on the other.
This composition allows the building to be seen as performing a ‘silent
acrobatic act,’ slightly floating above ground – while still staying close to
it.
Vertigo Moment, Two Windows at the Corner
In
section, the building can be seen as two programs separated by the parking area
– the social function of the restaurant above, and exhibition spaces below. As
the sharp corner of the site is approached by pedestrians, one encounters two
acrylic windows each revealing one of these two spaces – a curved, seamless
window to the top, revealing the 7-11m high space to the above, and a
triangular window within the base of the pyramid reveals the 8m space below,
resulting in a sudden unexpected moment of vertigo as the entire height of the
building (some 19 meters) suddenly presents itself.
Two kinds of Light Conditions
The two main volumes differ in the way they
deal with lighting conditions. The underground volume needs to provide varying
lighting conditions depending on the requirements of the exhibitions it houses
– thus flexibility is essential, and the system relies heavily on artificial
lighting. The exception is made in the entrance to the exhibition space, where
the previously mentioned triangular skylight dramatizes the entry sequence by
providing natural light into the vertical space. One may think of a skylight as
an object that is looked at from below, but in this case the triangular window
greets the visitors as an opening in the ground and then later changes its
identity into a skylight as we descend into the gallery. We think of this as an
adequate, surprising way to begin the gallery experience.
The
walls of the social/ restaurant space above ground are mostly solid – with the
somewhat limited exceptions of a few slits and small windows that were devised
to provide ventilation and some amount of view towards the outside. The main
source of lighting here is the skylight that takes up a large portion of the
sloped roof – a response to the cultural heritage regulation from an adjacent
building. The ceiling is composed of 3 layers of steel components – skylight
frame, structure and louvers – each of these layers are oriented differently
for a diffused lighting effect. The skylight itself is made of triple glazed
panes with an embedded layer of expanded steel mesh which aids the process of
primary sunlight filtering.
The
steel louver system is applied to the ceilings of both the restaurant and
exhibition spaces, albeit for different purposes. If the roof louvers were
installed to control the daylight, the basement ceiling louvers were to add
flexibility to the artificial lighting system. This gesture of using the same
louver system in different ways was also to have the two spaces create a visual
coherency.
The exhibition space has a polished concrete
floor and white walls, whereas the more social restaurant space keeps the
naturally exposed white concrete as its finished surface. The two spaces share
a somewhat understated material and color scheme, but vary subtly according to
the functions of the spaces.
Silent, but Unfamiliar Pleated Wall
It was suggested by the client that we use a
material manufactured by a specific steel manufacturer – who is also an
important supporter of Songwon Culture Foundation. This particular steel
company has the technology to roll paint various colors and patterns onto
rolled galvanized steel sheets. These products are commonly used as a
reasonably priced exterior finishes, normally in a panel format.
With
the help of the metal company we were able to apply a customized finish that
resembles concrete or perhaps weathered zinc, in somewhat of a distressed tone.
This finish was applied through the roll printing process and then these
coloured Galvanized sheets were folded and cut into V shaped channels of 5
different widths – ranging from 3 to 7cm in 1cm increments. These channels wrap
the exterior of the building forming a row of full height vertical strips, in a
randomized array of the five different widths. Absent of horizontal breaks,
this exterior finish gives an illusion of being casted in a single piece,
rather than being an assembly of several smaller pieces. The intention was to
have the building perceived as an ambiguous monolithic mass.
The
resulting pleated texture, combined with the varying boundary conditions of the
building plan – having straight and rounded portions - reacts with the natural
lighting conditions in an unpredictable way and obscures the materiality and
construction of the exterior. Here the building becomes ‘silent but
unfamiliar.’
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