International Architecture Awards 2012

The advent in New York of a new building for the Korean Cultural Center will be an important moment in the cultural history of the city. The introduction of strange element in the urban fabric will, like the proverbial grain of sand in the oyster, create the opportunity of the freak beauty of a pearl. Korean and New York culture have of course specific identity, their mix will be providential as those unique individual qualities coexist without betrayal. It will be fitting to a Korean understanding of architecture that the building wraps around a natural presence that animates it and creates a context for its understanding. New York City is not the space of nature, it exists instead in a context of allowable building envelopes, zoning classifications, floor-to-area ratios and maximized land values. In this rarified urban world, nature occupies a realm of accommodating compromise to profit while coexisting in conditions of extreme physical congestion and cultural excitement.

GEOMETRICIZED LIGHT CLOUDS
Natural illumination has been proven to improve living conditions of building interiors, making workers more productive and students’ learning more efficient. Natural lighting reduces building operating costs, lowering energy expense necessary to artificially illuminate spaces. Light enters the building in 3 ways:
1. Direct south light in the winter
2. Indirect south light in the summer
3. Indirect north light throughout the year
Multiple sources of light, a mixture of direct and indirect, create more comfortable environments. The design of the north-south section of the building pursues this, opening up exterior walls to incoming light from both south and north at more important public spaces in the building. These glazed facades are designed as geometricized Light Clouds. Their 3-dimensionality alludes to light as (necessary) object since their faceted geometry amplifies light by diffraction of beams simultaneously reflected by other facets. Constructed out of acid-etched glass structured with steel elements, these Clouds of Light will give unique character to the spaces of the Korean Cultural Center and endow the building with memorable uniqueness. The building will embody, as luminous presence, the Korean Cultural Center within the already rich cultural landscape of New York City.

In the complex patterning of their volumes, the Light Clouds, as if momentarily delayed in the walls of the building, reference both old and new aspects of Korean culture, referencing the bronze temple bell, the traditional wrapping cloth, and the Korean window screen. While many artifacts of Korean tradition such as window shutters or wrapping cloths are appreciated for the delicacy of their patterned structures, these facades also suggest “multi-faceted” diversity of contemporary Korean culture. A wall with simple rectangular window openings, the structure resembles humbly and respectfully many other buildings in the city without relinquishing its individuality or silencing its expression.

THE COLOR AND IMAGE OF KOREA, THE EMBLEM OF KOREA IN NEW YORK CITY
The Korean Cultural Center is not just another building in the city but, in fact, quite an exceptional presence, one that presents the color and image of Korea in New York. Although it will physically occupy its place amongst the other buildings on 32nd Street, its content will be quite different. We can think of it as a cultural gift to New York City, not unlike the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor or the “Bell of Friendship” given to the people of the US by the people of Korea in 1976 and located in San Pedro, California. With the right architectural design, perhaps the building can be made to “ring,” like the “Bell of Friendship,” for Korean-American friendship in New York. It can “ring” not with sound but with a space where Koreans, Americans and everyone else can share together the contributions of Korea to world culture and human development so far, and also witness the unfolding of its future promise. In order to be successful, the project must envision a building like no other, either in New York, Korea or anywhere, and aim to achieve its own unique architectural “sound,” like that wisely conceived alloy of copper and tin uniting to create something that did not exist before (bronze), and to give a bell its own unique pitch. Korea and New York blend in this project to create original spaces uniquely conceived to share and learn about the multiform richness ancestral of Korean cultural heritage. The Korean Cultural Center must of course be alive with the possibility of the future, as Korea is a country blessed with a long history of cultural achievement while at the same time currently empowered with renewed vigor to tackle the scientific and technical challenges of the 21st century. The very substance of the Korean Cultural Center, the emblem of Korea in New York City will be this bipolar theme of past and future.

The project has been designed utilizing advanced sun view analysis studies, comprehensive studies revealing duration of sun directly shining on the center of the site and providing basis for the concept of sunlight absorption and reflective pool located on the south of the site.

Gebäudetyp Kulturzentren, Touristen- und Besucherzentren

Projektgröße
Brutto-Grundfläche (BGF) 23.000 m2

Projektadresse US-10016 New York