Winning Design for Proposed Seoul Tower Opens and Expands Public Realm

NYC-headquartered architecture firm ODA recently won the Creative Innovation Architecture Design Pilot Project for a proposed mixed-use tower in Seoul’s Gangnam District inspired by the concept that “porosity leads to prosperity,” the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat reports, citing ODA. The competition represents the first time the city of Seoul has incentivized the private sector to “incorporate meaningful public space in exchange for allowing participants more (floor area ratio) and height,” ODA observed. Such meaningful open space incorporated by ODA includes a lushly landscaped public podium near the base and another, open landscaped terrarium/sky garden toward the top of the two-structured tower, which appears from renderings to be at least 50 stories tall and is described by ODA as a “supertall.” In Gangnam’s Cheongdam-dong ward, the site is south of the Han River in an area known for high-end retail and views of the surrounding mountains.