The Blade Tower, Seoul Skyscraper Building, Yongsan Design, Korean High Rise
The Blade, Seoul : Yongsan Tower
Yongsan Business District Tower, Seoul, Korea – design by Dominique Perrault Architecture
14 May 2012
The Blade Tower
Seoul, South Korea
Design: Dominique Perrault Architecture
Dominique Perrault has been selected to build a tower within the future Yongsan International Business Center in Seoul, whose master plan was designed by Daniel Libeskind
Paris, 14 May 2012 – Dominique Perrault has unveiled on May 2, during a press conference in Seoul, an original silhouette tower reaching 300 meters high: The Blade.
image : 2012 © Luxigon / DPA / Adagp
In 2008, Dreamhub, a consortium of thirty of the largest Korean companies, has launched an international urban planning competition for the master plan of Yongsan International Business center (587, 000 square meters). Asymptote, Foster & Partners, Jerde Partnership, Daniel Libeskind and SOM are involved. The project named “Archipelago 21” proposed by Daniel Libeskind was selected following the competition. In September 2011 and for two months, Dreamhub has ordered to fifteen renowned international architecture studios to design towers within the master plan.
Today, in the heart of historic Seoul, along the north bank of the Han River, the South Korean capital begins a makeover. At the center of public transportation of Seoul, linking the various parts of the metropolis with one another, the Yongsan International Business District is about to know a metamorphosis and to become a new symbol and growth engine for 21st century.
images © DPA / Adagp
The Yongsan International Business Center, ambitious program of nearly 3 millions square meters, is organized as an archipelago of vertical buildings inter-connected a by large park.
Connected to three other major business centers of the city, the future Business Center is developed away from the large monofunctional complexes, offering beyond the offices areas, housing, shops and many government facilities (cultural facilities, education and transport infrastructure).
Dominique Perrault, the only French architect invited, takes part again in Seoul’s transformation. After the completion of Ewha Womans University, the architect, through a unique architectural style, participates to the identity of the future business district. By its silhouette and its dynamic allure, the tower establishes itself in the area as a geographical landmark. Its mysterious shape appears like a totem, an iconic figure.
images © DPA / Adagp
It is not a square or a round building, but a rhomboid prism, arranged in a way that makes it look different depending on the angle of approach. Inspired by its slender shape and sharp edges, the tower has been named The Blade.
Within the effervescence of the emerging architectural styles, The Blade contrasts by being rooted in the urban reality, in a dialogue of light and reflections with the neighbouring towers. Like an optical instrument, its façade fragments and then reconstructs the neighbouring landscape to create a new one.
In the way of a sheath, the skin of the tower is clad with glass, reflecting light and its environment, thus releasing a luminous halo which envelopes the silhouette of the tower. This vibration of the building’s skin appears and disappears according to the viewing angle, creating a living architecture, transforming itself with the movements of the sun and the changes of light.
The project sculptures the void like a luxurious material, offering space, light and views of the grand Seoul landscape. The Grand Lobby, the Business Forum, the Wellness or the Panorama Lobby constitute as many cut-outs in the tower volume, dedicated to promenades and relaxation. This superposition of voids contrasts with the constructed volume of adjacent towers and accentuates the lightness of the tower prism.
The voids offer respirations and accommodate collective spaces open to the landscape. At night, they dematerialize the silhouette of the tower, which appears then like a precious carved stone.
images © DPA / Adagp
The architecture studios working on the Yongsan International Business Center are:
– AS + GG / Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture LLP
– Riken Yamamoto & FIELDSHOP
– Murphy/Jahn Architects
– Tange Associate Architects, – COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
– SDL / Studio Daniel Libeskind Architect
– MVRDV
– 5+Design
– SOM / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
– RPBW / Renzo Piano Building Workshop
– KPF / Kohn Perdersen Fox Associates
– Asymptote Architecture
– REX Architecture
– BIG / Bjarke Ingels Group
– DPA / Dominique Perrault Architecture
images © DPA / Adagp
The Blade, Yongsan – Building Information
Title: Tower B2-2
Status: direct order September 2011, estimated completion December 2016
Client: Dreamhub – Yongsan Development CO., Ltd., Seoul, Korea
Architect: Dominique Perrault Architecture
Architect of record: Samoo
Engineering: Bollinger + Grohmann (structures), HL Technik (Building services, security, coordination), Jean-Paul Lamoureux (acoustic)
Location: Yongsan International Business Center – Sky Island, Seoul, Korea
Concept design: Dec 2011
Schematic Design: Apr 2012
Estimated beginning of the construction: Jan 2013
Estimated end of the construction: Dec 2016
Tower height: 292,50 m
Number of levels: 56 above ground, 8 underground
The Blade Yongsan Towers images / information from Dominique Perrault Architecture
Location: Seoul, Korea
Korea Architecture
Korean Architecture Designs – chronological list
Yongsan International Business District Towers
Dancing Dragons
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
image © AS+GG
Dancing Dragons Yongsan
Cross Towers, Yongsan International Business District
BIG
image : MIR
Yongsan International Business District Towers
Twin Towers – The Cloud at Yongsan Dreamhub
MVRDV
Yongsan Masterplan Seoul
Yongsan International Business District Masterplan
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Yongsan Masterplan Seoul
South Korean Masterplan won by Foster + Partners
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