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Global Case Study: Balancing Cultural and Developer Goals in a Korean Mixed-Use High-Rise
Published: July 01, 2008

By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor

Bu-Cheon, a developing city about 30 miles from Korea’s capital, Seoul, does not have the skyscrapers and mixed-use projects like the country’s capital. Most of the existing city shopping centers are visually and aesthetically unappealing and unsuccessful in achieving optimum functionality. But a 37-story twin tower project called the Byzantium Sang-dong, which opened in July 2007, is inspiring many developments like itself here.

The Byzantium Sang-dong, a mixed-use project featuring 152 apartments as well as retail and commercial space on some of the floors, is one of the first of its kind in this city. In an area where ugly signboards abound, this high-rise is proving to be an example, demonstrating a new way to design a commercial center. In addition, unlike any other project, this one also features a public space where people from the community can meet. It was one of Byzantium’s chief goals to ensure that the building did not alienate people and create a wall around itself.

In 2010, when a subway connecting Bu-Cheon with Seoul comes up at the intersection of Byzantium Sang-dong, the project will also have the feel of a transit-oriented development.

The Byzantium Sang-dong features apartments as well as condominiums. The condos are priced at $3,500 to $4,500 per sq. m and the rents are $1,000 to $1,500 per month including a $100,000 deposit.

“The main emphasis of the architecture and design comes from the idea that the dizzy downtown needs a pioneering as well as symbolic structure,” says Kim, Young-Jin, chief designer at iPlanning Ltd, which designed the project.

“The highlight of this building’s architecture and interior design is the Pilotis and the two differently designed lobbies. These spaces bought the traditional design concepts of the Byzantium Empire and of Korean architectural tradition together. The design team interpreted the Byzantine traditions with Korean style, while studying how well it goes with the modern city and its residents, and that effort realised as the Pilotis on the ground floor of this property,” adds Kim.

The lower part of the building, below the sixth floor, is decorated in grey granite with ancient European patterns and the higher floors, from seventh to the 37th, are covered with green glass and aluminium panels.  In the commercial section of the tower, the iPlanning provided only the basic level of work, thus allowing commercial tenants to be able to maximise their own interior design inside their spaces. The residential part offers three interior design concepts: modern, classic and exotic.

The project has won several awards, including “Environment Residential Culture Grand Award” presented by Korea Economic Times and the “Herald Economy Times Green Residential Culture Grand Award” presented by Herald Economy Times.

But to achieve its goals, the developer had to overcome some challenges. The biggest one was that the district in which this project is built, is packed with commercial facilities, making it difficult to build a high-rise tower that is also visually appealing. The two tasks the developer took on were making sure the project fit into the surroundings of the area and still maintained its own identity.

“In the Korean property market, many high-rise multi-housing projects cost too much and try to create a barrier between the residents and the outside, says Chung, Moon-IL, CEO of The Byzantium Ltd. “However, we believe that reasonable exposure of the residents’ private space can add an element of class, as well as motivate onlookers to some degree,” adds Chung. The Pilotis on the ground level, which connects the residential, commercial, and the public, is that space which the developer hoped would play that role in the project.
 
Incorporating Korean culture into this project was also an important goal for the Sang-dong. So the common area, Pilotis, is painted with five colors derived from Korean tradition. There is an ancient Korean superstition called “O-Bang-Saek”, based on which certain colors are used for certain directions: blue for the east, white for the west, red for the south, black for the north, and yellow for the centre. So the architect used those five colors in the lobbies of each residential wing and the Pilotis. Chung says, “We hope that these colours can bring luck to the residents.”

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