By Anna Fifield in Seoul
Published: July 14 2008
Vision of the future: an artist’s impression of the Yongsan development, which will be sited close to the Han river and two big train stations
Hardly one of Asia’s most aesthetically pleasing cities, Seoul is undergoing a spectacular face-lift, with a range of multi-billion-dollar construction projects.
In the latest development, five internationally renowned architects are bidding to design the Yongsan international business district in the South Korean capital, a $28bn five-year project due to start in 2011.
“We’ve been invited to put the soul back in Seoul,” says Hani Rashid of the New York firm Asymptote, which designed Malaysia’s Penang Global City and is vying for the Seoul contract.
As South Korea rebuilt its razed capital after the Korean war and embarked on four dizzying decades of industrialisation, the emphasis was on function rather than form. The result is a mish-mash of concrete blocks. But in the past decade this has begun to change, with the construction of parks and plazas, and the emergence of more inspired buildings.
Now five architectural firms have been asked to design a “cutting-edge, future-oriented complex” on 566,000 square metres of land, currently home to railway warehouses, in the centre of Seoul.
The master plan is to include commercial, residential, cultural and leisure spaces, and must feature a landmark tower. The winner will be announced in December.
Close to the Han river and two important train stations, the Yongsan development borders the US military base, which will be turned into the “Central Park of Seoul” when the army relocates south of the capital in four years, and is in the middle of the three current business districts.
“Seoul is undistinguished in terms of its architecture and is not seen as an international player, and that is precisely what this project is about, what we have to answer,” says Nina Libeskind of Studio Daniel Libeskind, which is rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York. “It’s a very exciting, very optimistic moment in the city’s history.”
Local residents have mixed feelings.
Park Jin-ho, an interior designer who lives in an apartment near the railway station, says the area is “already good to live in because it is quite central, and I think it will be much better, with more benefits, once it is developed”.
However, others think the city government is not paying enough compensation to residents who will have to move.
“I don’t oppose the city’s plan to make Yongsan an upper-class town to raise Seoul’s competitiveness, but I really don’t like the way the city is pushing for the development project without consulting residents [or] guaranteeing our property rights,” says Chung Geun-soo, another resident.
The Yongsan area is nine times the size of the World Trade Center complex and each of the architectural firms has been given $1m to come up with a plan – compared with $40,000 for those offering to redesign Ground Zero.
Andy Bow of Foster and Partners, architects of the Swiss Re “Gherkin” building in the City of London, says the project has the potential to redefine Seoul. “It’s like Canary Wharf [in London] or La Défense [in Paris] in terms of the scale and the quantum of development,” says Mr Bow. “Canary Wharf moved the centre of gravity in London.”
The other architects bidding are Jerde Partnership, famous for Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills, and Skidmore Owings and Merrill, which is building the Burj Dubai, set to be the world’s tallest tower.
The project comes amid a dearth of office space and a flurry of construction. The vacancy rate among commercial buildings in Seoul is about 1 per cent, one of the lowest in Asia, and Jones Lang LaSalle, the property firm, estimates the lack of supply pushed up Korean office prices by about 25 per cent last year.
But Yongsan will be unique because of its central location and access to both parks and the river, the developers say. “I think it’s very important in a city of 10m or 20m people to have a place where people can come together into the centre,” says John Simones, design director of Jerde.
……………………………………………….
Billion-dollar developments lend touch of class
The Yongsan development is being built by a 26-member consortium, led by the state-run Korea Railroad Corporation, Samsung Corp and the National Pension Service. Total project finance could rise to $50bn (€31bn, £25bn), the developers estimate.
By common consent, Seoul is short of top class architecture. But two large-scale developments are under way in Youido, the island in the Han River and Korea’s financial centre.
The 486,000 sq metre Seoul International Finance Centre, being developed by the city government and a unit of AIG, the American insurer, will contain three office towers, a five-star hotel and a shopping mall.
Across the road, Skylan, a pan-Asian real estate development company, is running a similar $2bn project. New York-based Gale International is behind the $20bn construction of New Songdo City, near Incheon international airport It will feature residential and commercial buildings, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, hospitals and schools. A 14km bridge linking the city to the Incheon international airport is almost complete.
Additional reporting by Song Jung-a