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The city of Seoul has long looked to develop into a Eastern metropolis on the level of Beijing or Tokyo. With the onset of a huge cultural swing that has Korea and Seoul in the forefront of pop culture, Seoul has begun new initiatives to enhance development. In a strategy to greenify and create a more walkable, green, and iconic city there has been an initiative that gives developers a chance to increase FAR by checking off a series of seven subjective community driven boxes. These boxes would essentially justify the city to alter zoning and allow for up to double the initial zoned FAR for the plot.

In the Cheong-Dam district of Seoul, we had developed, with the help of the client, our AOR, and a client rep, a new landmark and icon for the city of Seoul. Marked the Terrarium because of the large threshold of a podium, this development promotes connectivity between the bustling neighborhood of Cheong-Dam, the Han river, and the Cheong-Dam park to the South.

The tower itself was awarded double the FAR with another 40% raise after initial input, and is seen as one of the most iconic developments in Seoul. The podium is marked by a two large green stairs that move pedestrians from the street level (B1) up to the top of a canopy (L2). The program of the podium includes cafes, restaurants, retail, community center, and public gallery space. The tower is a combination of condominium and pied-a-terre for international business second homes.

The iconic hole in the tower is created as a fully public and accessable sky garden that holds a park in the sky that will provide views to Seoul’s many icons around the area. Because of its location in a more residential and low-lying area of Seoul, the tower will stand above but is broken in ways to connect it back to the scale of the neighborhood.