[khris]

Daniel Libeskind plans to create a series of neighbourhoods in the Yongsan district of Seoul. (Studio Daniel Libeskind)


The architect who designed the expansion of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, has been named winner of a competition to redesign a district of Seoul in South Korea.

Daniel Libeskind, who is based in New York, will work with ARUP and Martha Schwartz Inc. to create a master plan to transform the gritty Yongsan International Business District.

The $20-billion US development involves creating a series of linked neighbourhoods with residential, office and retail, each set in a sea of green park space.

There will be 3.1 million square metres of built area in each neighbourhood and the district will include new schools, cultural institutions and rapid transit, according to Studio Daniel Libeskind.

"The idea is to create a 21st century destination that is at once transformative, vibrant, sustainable and diverse," Libeskind said in a press release issued Thursday.

"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."

Other finalists in the design competition included Asymptome, Foster+Partners, Jerde Partnership and Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

Libeskind designed the controversial Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at Toronto's ROM, an angular addition to the old Beaux-Arts building that looms over Bloor Street.

He also did the 2003 design study for the World Trade Center site in New York, and created extensions to the Denver Art Museum and the Jewish Museum Berlin in Germany.

Studio Daniel Libeskind has offices in New York, Zurich and Milan and site offices in Denver, Bern, San Francisco, and Hong Kong.

Seoul, South Korea's capital and its most densely populated city, has plans to redesign its downtown and create an urban park along the Han River.


Source

 

[Brian69]

Hmph. I liked the gritty Yongsan Business District, especially the huge maze that is the electronics market there. Libeskind's design is a nice modern addition to an already modern skyline (yet another glass and steel addition) and is probably for the better overall, but something is always lost in the shuffle. On the positive side the creation of green space is excellent because it is something that is sorely lacking in Seoul.

 

[Build Up]

it looks really good but i doubt it will be built

 

[wyliepoon]

I'm guessing that 'signature tower' in the middle is yet another Korean bid to build the world's tallest building (or at least something that will beat the CN Tower in height). I hear about those super-supertall projects coming out of that country all the time, but there's so little info on all of them.

 

[Irishmonk]

I can only hope for Korea's sake that the recession kills off this project. How Libeskind continues to get prestige projects like this is beyond me. His designs almost always turn into monstrous, overbudget, impractical, unworkable and almost universally derided disasters. Not even Godzilla could do as much damage to downtown Seoul as this wretched man.

 

[Whoaccio]

^
Probably because not everyone agrees with you that all of his projects turn into "universally derided disasters."

 

[wonderboy416]

This would be welcomed, but as mentioned there are similar plans to this all over the Seoul area. Incheon (Seoul's Mississauga) is supposed to have something similar that will see numerous 1000+ footers go up. I'll believe it when I see it here. Yongsan is a truly strange area. It's got one of the largest and most confusing electronics markets you'll ever find, Korea's biggest train station and a red light district that would hold its own against anywhere. Of course once the US army base leaves for good in a few years who knows what will come of this. Is that the land they are proposing to build this on??? If so that would be ideas, I'd love for what's currently in Yongsan to be preserved. If Seoul only had one main CBD instead of 7 and all these massive conglomerates built some large towers it would easily be one of the world's most impressive skylines given the incredible density of the city and sheer volume of mid-rises those suckers would be packed in between.

 

[wyliepoon]

Incheon (Seoul's Mississauga)

It's more like Seoul's Hamilton, if I'm not mistaken. It seems to me as though Incheon is treated more as a separate city than a suburb of Seoul. It even has its own subway system.

 

[wonderboy416]

It's more like Seoul's Hamilton, if I'm not mistaken. It seems to me as though Incheon is treated more as a separate city than a suburb of Seoul. It even has its own subway system.

I'd be curious to find out. It seems as if many people commute from Incheon into Seoul. It's also right next door to Seoul much as Mississauga is next to Toronto and is home to the regions international airport as well.

To say it has its on Subway is misleading. The Seoul subway branches out to most of the suburbs and surrounding areas. It just so happens that they built a line not too long ago in Incheon. It's mostly above ground and the frequency isn't quite the same. It would be like if the TTC extended out to Dundas/Hurontario then they built another line that intersected it and ran along Hurontario and went up into Brampton.