Sujeong Tower

An Integrated Public Realm

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Situated in Gangnam, the ‘power centre’ of Seoul, this project was aimed at designing a headquarters tower that engages with the community and activates its urban surroundings.

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The urban strategy capitalises on the site location that sits alongside one of the busiest highways in South Korea and future linear greenway. An integrated public realm strategy will connect the local districts and create a new park destination. The tower engages with the park through an open ground plane, stitching together the routes and pedestrian connections around the site and activating a retail & exhibition venue.

Form Inspired by Nature

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The design of the tower was inspired by crystalline depictions of mountains found in Korean historical art. The essence of the crystal shard emergence stems from an abstraction of local geological conditions and evolved into an overall formal arrangement.

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The building mass is separated into four triangular volumes. These volumes present an open face to each of the primary desire lines and nearby mountains of Gwanak and Cheonggyesan. The planes extend to express the slenderness of each façade. The tower is intended to form a striking visual presence within its immediate urban context while referencing the shard-like geometry of the distant mountains.