Image: South East Elevation - Asymptote © All rights reserved.

© Asymptote Architecture . Pubblicata il 04 Aprile 2007.

Asymptote Architecture, the New York based architecture practice led by principals Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture, has been awarded the Millennium Tower World Business Center in Busan, Korea. The international competition was organized by the Busan International Architectural Culture Festival (BIACF) and sponsored by the Municipality of Busan City and the Solomon Group. The official announcement was made on January 25 in Busan after a unanimous decision by jury members selecting Asymptote’s groundbreaking design of three separate tapered towers rising out of a robust and powerful base. The Solomon Group, a private Korean developer, intends to move forward with Asymptote’s design for a 560m tall tower, which upon completion will be the tallest building in Asia.

Image: Asymptote © All rights reserved.

© Asymptote Architecture . Pubblicata il 04 Aprile 2007.

Asymptote’s design for the WBCB questions older notions of singularity and autonomy in tall building design being a juxtaposition of three distinct forms and the subsequent voids they delineate. This composition takes as its inspiration Busan’s dramatic skyline and the spectacular backdrop of sea and mountains that surround it. The base of the tower negotiates both the site and city at the entrance level, transporting people up a sky lobby and garden already situated high above the city. Here three slender towers rise even higher gracefully tapering upwards around a spectacular central void garden. Through its formal and sculptural qualities, the WBCB towers afford a unique architectural expression and symbolic elegance for 21st century Busan and the region.

Image: Asymptote © All rights reserved.

© Asymptote Architecture . Pubblicata il 04 Aprile 2007.

Asymptote Architecture, an award-winning firm founded in 1989 in New York City, has achieved global recognition for important projects developed for prestigious clients that include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the ORCO Group Paris, the New York Stock Exchange, Aldar Properties Abu Dhabi and the Equine Group in Malaysia. In addition to the WBCB towers project, other projects currently underway by the firm include two office towers in Budapest, a luxury mid-rise residential building in New York, a 50-story luxury residential tower on the Persian Gulf in Abu Dhabi, a master planning project for a 28 hectare mixed-use site in central Prague, a new city center and commercial complex in Penang, Malaysia as well as the new master plan of the downtown district of Monterrey Mexico.

Image: North East Elevation - Asymptote © All rights reserved.

© Asymptote Architecture . Pubblicata il 04 Aprile 2007.

Image: Asymptote © All rights reserved.

© Asymptote Architecture . Pubblicata il 04 Aprile 2007.

Image: North West Elevation - Asymptote © All rights reserved.

© Asymptote Architecture . Pubblicata il 04 Aprile 2007.