Shilla Daechi
Building for Samsung Corporation
Seoul, Korea. 1996

The building site, located in the new central business district enjoys a valuable and central location for the future of Seoul. This eight-story building’s program has three components: an automotive showroom for a new automobile line, three world class restaurants for an exclusive clientele, and a conference facility.

The project proposes a structure fabricated of two skins, one glass on the interior and a second, for privacy, of steel plates. The resulting building is thus introspective and closed on the upper and basement floors (the restaurants) and extroverted and open at the street level floor (the showroom).

There are several gardens, one at street level leading from the north to the lower restaurant level, an enclosed three-story space at the southwest corner of the building at the restaurant levels, and a rooftop outdoor space. At the northeast corner of the site, the new automobile is displayed on a raised and tilted platform. The platform is a continuation of the automobile showroom level.

The building’s form with its titanium skin, fashioned of reinforced flat plates, provides both a unique and different image for the building and offers discretion and privacy for diners. The plates are folded and bent to provide direct and indirect natural light and to frame specific views from the building. The same steel plates that represent the facility and are seen from the exterior provide the backdrop for the interior. During the daytime, sunlight will reflect and refract off the inside faces of the plates. At night the evening glow of the dining rooms will gently color the exterior, offering a sense of warmth and comfort.