What drove Seoul-based architecture firm Archium to situate the new HQ of a South Korean software developer in a swollen concrete rectangle? The offbeat shape was a way to get around strict planning regulations governing the ground floor footprint allowed for commercial buildings in a residential zone, what the firm compares to "applying the standards of casual clothing to formal attire." What started off as a way to sidestep a restrictive site condition was turned into the coolest thing about this office: a set of open-air corridors that surround each floor of the six-story building with outdoor spaces, nattily equipped with box planters and perforated metal balconies.
The interior is left raw an unadorned, as befits a structure that looks at first glance like a high-design parking garage. Between Archium's work here and an impressive PoMo church on the outskirts of the city, the raw concrete tour of Seoul is looking better and better.
· Swollen concrete facades increase floor area inside Archium's Gilmosery office block [Dezeen]
· All Seoul coverage [Curbed National]
· All Office Spaces posts [Curbed National]
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