A breathing, organic threshold

Transforming the Seoul Animation Centre into a gateway between city and mountain. The sheltered outdoors Market & Convention square is a big organic threshold from city to forest, from presence to imagination. It is made from the same materials we find in the mountain: earth, stone, and trees -both transformed and alive. The new Centre belongs to the Namsan Mountain. Planting the same vegetation that is currently growing in the mountain, giving two new small forests to Namsan and its citizens. When you enter the Center you have the feeling of already being in the mountain. This cluster of buildings is the beginning of the healing platform for the citizens -even literally, for it absorbs more CO2 than it produces.

A new animation agora – indoors and sheltered

Giving almost twice the inhabitable requested space for the same budget. The new sheltered square works as a gathering place, a centre for the Animation Town and Yejang Jarak. Each indoor space has its double outdoors, sheltered twin -on a porch or under the roof.

Bringing down the Animation Center scale into autonomous structures around a central cloister-like void -the agora- allows a more flexible interdependent use of its three main activities, more human scale places and volumes that relate to the neighborhood constructions. The Center becomes a new small imagination town in the base of the mountain.

Designing for change, diversity and magic

Designing an open architecture for uncertainty, welcoming change in climatic and programatic conditions. An infrastructure that adapts to the increasing unpredictability of our global and local environment, both in weather extremes, and social and use diversity. It is designed so that all unforeseen circumstances actually improve the building and its experience.

It is a magic place, when reality and imagination coexist. A space of possibilities, for day-dreaming and self-discovery, intimate or shared with the community. Its built environment is an infrastructure and a shelter. In the smaller scale, the light timber house-shaped spaces connect us directly with our common childhood landscape, where most comic and animation experiences travel to.

Prefabricated and self-built infrastructure

Coexistence of in situ and prefabricated reinforced concrete on the underground and vertical communication cores, and timber and trees for the above the ground buildings. At the Creative Factory, animation companies will have the choice of adapting and transforming their own workspace, even by assembling themselves the small prefabricated hut structures that are part of this proposal. The goal is to achieve real use flexibility, but also to allow everyone working at the Creative Factory to participate actively in the configuration of their working environment. These small structures will also be implemented at the Market Convention and Imagery Playground areas.

This project is a chance for a research collaboration with local timber transformation industry, evolving from South Korean timber construction ancient techniques. An innovation catalyst to further develop cradle-to-cradle timber construction in South Korea, allowing a mid-term increase in locally resourced timber from ecologically grown and transformed Korean forests.