Yongsan Business District Master Plan, Seoul, South Korea

Libeskind wins Seoul competition
Studio Daniel Libeskind has won an international design competition to transform the center of the South Korean capital into an international business district. The $20 million project will create a new large-scale district on the Han River that is to include a cluster of residential, office and retail neighborhoods in an extensive urban park. It will also contain new cultural institutions, education facilities and rapid transportation systems.

The plan, called Archipelago 21 because each neighborhood functions like “islands within a sea of green park space", will contain 34 million sq ft of built area. "The idea is to create a 21st-century destination that is at once transformative, vibrant, sustainable and diverse," Libeskind said in a statement. "I wanted to make each form, each place, each neighborhood as varied and distinctive as possible. The plan, and each building within it, should reflect the vertical and cultural complexity of the heart of Seoul."

Studio Daniel Libeskind was on a short list of five firms competing for the project. The competitors included U.S.-based firms Asymptote Architecture, Jerde Partnership and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, along with UK based Foster & Partners.

The project is slated to break ground in 2011 and be completed by 2016.

Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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