Currently a hot contender in the running for the new V&A at Dundee building, New York-based practice REX was asked to design a residential complex in Songdo Landmark City, Incheon, Korea in which every apartment offers direct southern exposure, cross-ventilation, and views.
Korean zoning guidelines and local building practices typically produce towers that fail to provide these three key, locally-prized amenities. Furthermore, prevailing site strategies carve up the open space such that the result is not the often-advertised “Towers in a Park,” but anemic “Towers in a Yard” instead.
Block A4 challenges conventional Korean development practices to provide the key amenities within each unit and a true publicly-accessible park at grade.
Surprisingly, the structural tube can be 50% perforated, as long as all openings are located to maintain continuous load paths and to minimize lateral displacement. The dynamic behavior of the perforated structural tube is well within acceptable standards.
Korean towers typically have four or more units per floor. As a result, many apartments have limited direct light, no southern exposure and poor cross-ventilation. By splitting a single tower with four units per floor into four separate towers with only one unit per floor, the resulting super-slim building type...
...it becomes possible to reduce the project build time by 63% compared to conventional gang-form construction methods. (Image: Magnusson Klemencic Associates)
Exaggerated visualizations from structural analysis (Image: Magnusson Klemencic Associates)
In Korea, gang-form construction is commonly used for the exterior walls and columns. Traditional concrete construction is used for interior bearing elements and floor plates. As an alternative, by using jump-up/Jackdown construction to build the perforated structural tube,...
The lobby of each tower occupies a double height space accessible from both grade and parking levels and provides daylight to below-grade community facilities.
By organizing the landscape at grade into a series of continuous bands, SLC Block A4 presents an alternative site strategy that will provide an open, active, pedestrian-friendly park. (Image: Bureau Bas Smets)
The primary pedestrian routes are consolidated into only four hardscape paths, avoiding a patchwork that would, on a site of this size, disperse and diffuse activity and divide up the green space. (Image: Bureau Bas Smets)
Project Data:
LOCATION: Incheon, Korea
CLIENT: Songdo Landmark City (SLC)
PROGRAM: Residential towers with a total of approximately 2,000 units, community facilities, retail, and underground parking
AREA: 342,900 m² (3,691,000 sf)
CONSTRUCTION COST: Confidential
STATUS: Completed Concept Design
DESIGN ARCHITECT: REX
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Bureau Bas Smets
EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT: HYUNDAI Architects & Engineers; SAMOO Architects & Engineers
KEY PERSONNEL: Adolfo Albaisa, Haviland Argo, E. Sean Bailey, Keith Burns, Nicolas de Courten, Rob Daurio, Jeremiah Joseph, Hui Lee, Katharine Meagher, Clinton Miller, Roberto Otero, Michelle Petersen, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Jacob Reidel, Nikolas Rychen, Tal Schori, Hala Sheikh, Nuo Xu
CONSULTANT: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
REX
