Barkow Leibinger

Barkow Leibinger
Schillerstraße 94, D–10625 Berlin
T +49(0)30 315712 -0 F -29
info@barkowleibinger.com
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TRUTEC Building, Seoul, Korea

A 50meter high mid-rise comprising exhibition and office space has been constructed within the ‘Digital Media City’, a new urban quarter is situated in Seoul between the international airport and city center.  Given the uncertainty of adjacent neighboring buildings we proposed a building which is clad in a skin of faceted reflective glass panels. It quite deliberately sits between complete artistic free play (relief, sculpture) and standardized seriality, and draws its aesthetic strength from this tension. 

The outcome is the fortunate result of what was initially a problematic situation: by intentionally assimilating the surrounding buildings onto the façade of the TRUTEC Building through reflection and optical fragmentation, we could react while still not knowing what the emerging surroundings would ultimately offer. The polygonal surfaces fragment any given contextual surroundings into a kaleidoscope of infinite pixels. 

Project Information

Architects — Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger

 

Team Design and Construction — Martina Bauer (Project Architect), Matthias Graf von Ballestrem, Markus Bonauer, Michael Schmidt, Elke Sparmann, Jan-Oliver Kunze

 

Program

Showroom, Cafeteria, Office

 

Location

Seoul, Korea

 

Size

20.000 sqm

 

Construction

2005 - 2006

 

Awards

2008  AIA Honor Awards for Architecture

2007  Korean Civil Engineering,

Building Technics Award

2005  "Possible Futures"

Bienal Miami+Beach, Acknowledgment

Client                         

TKR Sang-Am Ltd.

 

Contact Architect        

Chang-Jo Architects, Seoul, Korea

 

Structural Engineer     

Schlaich Bergermann and Partner, Stuttgart

Jeon and Lee Partners, Seoul

 

Façade Consultant                    

Arup Façade Engineering

Alutek Ltd., Seoul, Korea