Cheongna, South Korea

Upside Down Vertigo

Lorenza Giavarini, Gianluca Evels, Luigi Valente, Meisam Mohammadi

The new city tower of Cheong-na proposed by the project realises a vision of mind able to verify the symbolic collective image of Korea as a gateway to Asia. Its also a symbol for the new prestige that Korea is aiming for in the immediate future.

The new tower presents itself as a sophisticated and cultural artefact able to excerpt a concept of vertical modernity following the ancestral and human desire to connect heaven and earth.

The project originates from the acceptance of the concept of a high building as an essential element in the composition of a modern metropolis, and from the wish to realise a Utopia of urban self sufficient microcosmos.

Following the mathematical concept of function limit we can say that the new tower will arise as an accumulation point of the metropolitan function able to generate complex places and spaces. From this point of view the tower can be a real social capacitor or urban catalyst.

The project also accepts the idea of considering the high building not anymore as a speculative instrument for parcel profits but as a vehicle of support for the planet in particular contexts such as metropolises, by using natural elements like water and green spaces, used on various levels of the tower.

The presence of these elements, water and green spaces, also on the higher levels, will improve the belonging to the Nature feeling, which is often forgotten in high buildings.

The project research wants to create a vertical landscape which proposes a complex experience of perception of the liveable space inside the building and between the components.

The multiplication of views and possible relations between future users, the continuous perceptive variation of the elements in foreground, and the panoramic background are part of this research.

Therefore the new city tower presents itself as a possible incarnation of the urban and functional crowd. At the same time it searches a light construction through a compositional process of aggregation of simple elements which can be easily extracted in the collective memory of an architectonic efficient and representative skyline.

Finally, besides being a clear and visual landmark which can be seen from a great distance, the project also wants to give the tower a theatrical role compared to his architectural form/design: for example some elements of the tower are part of an urban interactive scenery, like events being organized on ground floor or higher levels. Or aesthetic nocturnal and daily happenings parallel to the normal function of the architectural object.

Europaconcorsi Beta

Upside Down Vertigo