The new headquarters for Amorepacific, Korea’s largest beauty company, is located in the centre of Seoul at a site which has been occupied by the company since 1956. It is situated next to a former US military zone that is being transformed into the spacious public Yongsan Park and a business district, which was part of a masterplan representing the largest high-rise development in Korea that substantially altered the urban fabric of the Yongsan district.
The form of the building is both abstract and gestural. Focusing on a single, clear volume, the proportions of the building have been carefully developed around a central courtyard to maximise the effectiveness of natural ventilation and daylight. Three large urban openings connect this central void with the exterior surroundings, providing views over the city and the mountains in the distance and therefore establishing a sense of orientation and belonging. As ‘hanging gardens’, these openings give scale and allow nature to extend from the adjacent park into all parts of the building.
The design elaborates the social, cultural and professional ambitions of the company by combining the workplace with other communal activities. By elevating the external layer of the façade, the entrance level opens up to the city and draws the public into a generous atrium. The courtyard situated above represents the communal centre of the company workplace, with the elevated gardens providing recreational space for those who use the building. A rich mixture of public amenities such as a museum, auditorium, library, restaurants and childcare facilities ensures that the building is not only an efficient headquarters but also the public face of a vital company embedded in the growing metropolis of Seoul.
The façades with their diaphanous brise-soleil cladding not only facilitate the environmental performance of the building by providing shading and reducing heat load, but also give the building a coherent and strong yet at the same time open and light form. Metaphorically, the new building echoes the aspirations of a modern organisation, mediating between local and global, private and public, collective and individual, formal and informal, and in doing so establishing its dynamic identity.
Competition:2010
Project start:2010
Completion:2017
Gross floor area:216,000 m²
Client:Amorepacific Corporation
Architect:David Chipperfield Architects Berlin
The new headquarters for Amorepacific, a large Korean cosmetics company, is situated in the center of Seoul. In immediate proximity lies a former US military zone that will be transformed into the spacious new public Yongsan Park and an International Business District presenting the largest high-rise development in Korea, thus substantially altering the urban fabric of the area. Hangangro Avenue, a historically significant street that remains one of Seoul's main infrastructural axes, borders the northwest side of the new building.
The primary aim of the project was to create a building with a distinct identity within a highly diverse urban context. Focusing on a single, clear volume, the massing of the building avoids any iconographic similarities with neighboring high-rise buildings. The proportions of the volume have been carefully developed around a central courtyard to maximize the effectiveness of natural ventilation and daylight for each floor. A central atrium provides an intimate space at the lower levels.
A raised stone plinth, mediating the existing topography, supports the idea of an open platform at ground-floor level. Thus, all entrances are united and generate a public place of arrival, which connects the Headquarters with the nearby new Yongsan City quarters and the park.
Three large openings in the building volume provide dramatic views over the city and the mountains in the distance. Elevated gardens within these openings bring nature into the building. Simultaneously, they introduce a human sense of scale but also establish a relationship to areas far beyond the location of the building.
The abstract expression of the façade is mainly provided through a second skin of fixed and differently sized aluminum fins in front of full-height glass panes acting as brise-soleil. Through subtle changes and random positioning of the fins, the building assumes varying qualities of lightness and heaviness, texture, and surface.
The interiors of the building follow the idea of a calm and robust ambiance in which in-situ concrete, glass, natural stone, and curtains are the primary materials. The interplay between architectural elements creates a unique character. This interplay is holding the building's inherent dialectic properties of object and composed space, private and public, openness and enclosure, nature and architecture, tradition, and modernity.
The public functions include a museum, conference area, large auditorium, restaurants, and retail facilities and are located on the lower levels around the atrium lobby, while non-public functions, such as office and staff facilities, are located on the floors above. Each of these areas is connected to one of the three large openings, allowing the elevated gardens to become a recreation zone for staff.