AmorePacific Headquarters, Seoul

The head­quar­ters built in Seoul by David Chip­per­field Ar­chi­tects Berlin and Christoph Felger for the AmorePa­cific cos­met­ics group serve as a me­di­a­tor - between un­tram­melled surface and deft­ness of ar­chi­tec­tural ex­pres­sion, between ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal ex­ten­sion in the virtual shape of a cube, between high-out­put en­gi­neer­ing and re­gion­ally nur­tured knowhow and, no less im­por­tantly, between the as­pi­ra­tions in­vested in a large group’s head­quar­ters and the group’s social re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. This is a moot point given that the build­ing also devotes a large amount of floor­space to a wide variety of public uses.
The mas­siv­ity of the cubic struc­ture is re­lieved by three broadly wrought in­ci­sions that give on to an open inner court­yard in the form of ter­races. The roughly cube-shaped edifice is ef­fec­tively per­me­ated by a large air space, af­ford­ing the be­holder from without gen­er­ous views into and through the en­sem­ble. Con­versely, those working inside the build­ing are privy to max­imised views out­wards, un­beat­able amounts of day­light, natural ven­ti­la­tion and at­trac­tive areas of green­ery.

The main fa?ade com­pris­ing floor-to-ceil­ing glass and opaque ven­ti­la­tion panels has been aug­mented by a per­me­able outer layer as a means of better con­trol­ling tem­per­a­ture de­vel­op­ments inside the build­ing without needing to have re­course to en­ergy-in­ten­sive hi-tech mea­sures. Ver­ti­cal alu­minium pi­laster-strips min­imise di­rectly in­ci­dent sun­light without im­pair­ing the sweep­ing views to be had. They take account of the sun’s varying po­si­tions and were con­sciously built in dif­fer­ing widths.

The in­ter­play of the fa?ade with the hor­i­zon­tal storey-level rib­bon­ing behind en­gen­ders a finely woven effect and the dif­fer­ing pi­laster widths inject a great sense of vi­brancy and in­tri­cacy into the struc­ture. At the same time, the build­ing does not exude such a sense of som­bre­ness as many of the glass-fa?ade tower blocks round about. The glass is com­pletely ob­scured from some angles by the ranks of pi­lasters. With their fine struc­tur­ing, bright colours and varying widths, they nev­er­the­less look more like some gos­samery swaying curtain than a solid wall.

Unlike many other high-rise blocks in central Seoul, the build­ing manages not to look like a fu­tur­is­tic foreign body amidst such motley struc­tural sur­round­ings. It chimes in with the ar­chi­tec­tural fabric of the ad­join­ing fi­nan­cial dis­trict yet still strikes a chord with the smaller-for­mat dis­tricts that have so far re­sisted being en­gulfed by the modern con­struc­tion boom. And it also seeks to mesh with the city in the way it is used. It boasts a base­ment level opened up on all sides by a perime­ter colon­nade that invites both those working in the build­ing and also the general public to ac­tively make use of it. The large atrium with its high air space that opens up in the middle of the build­ing pro­vides space for art in­stal­la­tions, con­certs and other cul­tural events whilst si­mul­ta­ne­ously serving as a means of ac­cess­ing other public of­fer­ings such as a museum, library, tea house and shops.

This social re­spon­si­bil­ity also em­braces the build­ing’s eco­log­i­cal as­pi­ra­tions; ter­races laid out like raised flower beds can be said to trans­port the realm of Nature into the build­ing itself. This creates a verdant recre­ational space for staff whist si­mul­ta­ne­ously com­pen­sat­ing the city for part of the space built over. Lo-tech so­lu­tions draw on knowl­edge passed down and, for the build­ing’s energy supply for in­stance, gear them­selves towards the sun and wind or else tap what is known about cli­matic cycles. The fa?ades are po­si­tioned at an angle of 45 degrees to the car­di­nal di­rec­tions, thus re­duc­ing the direct in­ci­dence of solar heat. The ex­ter­nal sun­shad­ing adapts to the po­si­tion of the sun through­out the year and ex­ploits this at­tribute to the full with the aid of highly in­su­lated windows. With its open terrace struc­ture, the build­ing’s cubage fa­cil­i­tates the natural ven­ti­la­tion of all work areas during sea­sonal tran­si­tions and reduces the need for ar­ti­fi­cial light. The atrium re­ceives natural il­lu­mi­na­tion too, diffuse day­light fil­ter­ing down through the glazed floor of the central in­te­rior court­yard located di­rectly above.

Ad­di­tional light is pro­vided by cus­tom-de­signed min­i­mal­ist ceiling lu­mi­naires that create telling points of focus. The ar­chi­tects were con­sciously re­strained in their choice of ma­te­ri­als, though with a keen eye to quality and dura­bil­ity through­out – lim­it­ing them­selves to exposed con­crete and fea­tures in natural stone for the atrium and to some­what finer ma­te­ri­als in stronger colours for the upper semi-pub­lic and private areas. The company’s own use of the build­ing com­mences in the upper areas of the atrium. The au­di­to­rium looks out onto the park and can be varied in size, acoustic prop­er­ties and at­mos­phere by means of large-for­mat cur­tains.
The central in­te­rior court­yard on the floor above forms the social and at­mos­pheric heart of the company’s head­quar­ters, of­fer­ing staff further con­ve­niences such as restau­rants and cafés, fitness and health fa­cil­i­ties and an in-house nursery school. The handle series 1004 by FSB that has been fitted is notable for its modern, clean-lined formal vo­cab­u­lary and was like­wise au­thored by the Chip­per­field prac­tice.

The firm’s holis­tic ap­proach is en­shrined in an ar­chi­tec­tural concept in­formed by the notion of “form follows purpose”. Chip­per­field at­tached great im­por­tance to con­ceiv­ing a handle imbued with the same ar­chi­tec­tural phi­los­o­phy as his work as a whole, one that, far from simply fitting in with the overall scheme, ac­tu­ally adds to it. FSB 1004 was, after all, in­spired by the pre­cur­sors of Mod­ernism and by de­signer-thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgen­stein, a man who was driven by the same yearn­ing for logical clarity. A short cir­cu­lar neck mutates into a square-sec­tion handle with a grip bent round at right-an­gles. FSB 1004 has been in­stalled in the AmorePa­cific build­ing in Stain­less Steel and Bronze vari­ants.