First of all, public architecture really starts after the construction is made. "I went and saw it, and the building was so cool." and you only take a picture then that's the only memory you have of it. But if we put human and put the event as the protagonist, it would differ everytime I visit the building. That building has a high return rate, Over time, it becomes a place where you can converge with that community. In that aspect, it's amazing. Hello, we are here at GwangJu, South Jeolla Province. The reason we came here is to visit a builiding called the National Asian Cultural Center. A question I hear a lot elsewhere is, "What kind of architecture do you like?" Like, people ask me if i could recommend architecures in South Korea. There is two buildings that I always talk about when I talk about this. One of which is 'Museum Mountain' by Ando Dadao and the second is the National Asian Cultural Center. So where we started is, this is the 5.18 Democracy Square. The building was a very important contest. I remember that the contest was around 2005, I wanted to participate, there were so many submissions before me, that I didn't get to submit. I did look to it once, But it was one of those contests that was too complicated to solve. That's because this site is so important. It was a center of revolt during the 5.18 Democratic Revolt. That buliding at the behind is the South Jeolla Provincial Offical Building. They protested a lot here. And the fountain you see here was here since long before. And this is where the original roundabout was. And you've got this cultural center project in the back of such a historic site, You have to understand the history, and complex architecturally, as well. And the place is also the center of Gwangju, where lots of streets meet. So for Seoul it would be the front and the back side of Seoul City Hall plaza. It's really complicated both when you look at it urbanistically, and when you look at it in a historical context. So it was very difficult in how we could solve these complexities. The architect is Kyusung Woo, Kyusung Woo is based in Cambridge. He designed the Olympic Apartments Athletes Village building. And he designed the Hwanki Museum, museum dedicated to artist Hwanki Kim. That two is his signifant works, But his core idea was, among his works, In short, it's kind of a strategy of trying to build something that doesn't stand out from the neighborhood. In my opinion, great architecture is architecture that fades to the background. Architecture where human relationship is the main point. That kind of architecture is the most sophisticated, I think, This National Asian Culture Center shows that. It has complex things around it and something like a great Pyramid is built. Lots of people looked forward to that. So when this architecture was chosen, and after it's built, there's lots of Gwangju citizens who regret This is now the main entrance. So you have to make the provincial office as the main point. you can't make entrance completely out of context So the main entrance is starting from 5.18 Democracy Square and the main entrance is here. So, let's get in. When we went to New York, we've been to Citicorp center When you look at Citicorp center, they made a sunken square, when you go straight up from the metro station, you are only going up one floor, and from there if you go up about a half a floor you get to go up to the street level. It's similar here. See, there's a subway station here you could enter from multiple spots. The height of this sunken square is about if you look at it from ground level, that's about three stories down. So if you get inside, you can't see any streets around you. It becomes a very quiet place, where you can't see any streets. Just before, when we are entering, we heard a massive car noise while doing a introduction. Even if you are just this far in, you can't notice any cars and becomes a very quiet atmostphere. It's in the center of the urban area, but whenever you get down to the sunken square, you feel like you are entering a complete different world. It's planned like that. And in the inside, it's not like the concept of tiny sunken garden there is a really large square. So when it comes to constructing an architecture The first thing that tells 'here is my place' is the floor. Making the floor pavers different. So if you look at here, they have put a stone under it. Second is making the roof. The easiest way of making a roof is to plant a tree. But if you plant a tree, plant large trees, like these zelkova As the trunk rises and the branches spread out to the sides. The space under it, the tree itself, and the branches become the roof and makes the space beneath. Then people would rest in the shade under it, feeling like this is my space. let's go beneath it. Human loves sunlight however, you can't be looking at sunlight forever. As you could see inside this space this sunken square is not a flat ground it slightly changes the level. It has the square part where you receive the sunlight As you look at it now, it could be divided into a place with shades. if you look at the floor, there's already shades in the floor and that part is relatively bright So even if you make it with the same stone the space here and there is different. Space with and without shades just casually creates unique space In fact, if it was only that this space wouldn't be as successful If you look around, there are visitor center, convenience store, museum, and library these are arranged throughout the space When we go to Europe and see squares European sqaures are just the size of average South Korean school playground. The biggest difference between a playground and European square is Whether there are shops around it The exterior space of any space is charaterized by what shops are located around it So if this sunken square was made and the exterior was just plain walls This would be a unwanted, gloomy place But as this is the center, we could enter subway station parking lot, library, museum, multiple functions exist here as well as the cafe So here the exterior, especially transparent structure from first floor, eventually makes this space lively It could connect diverse functions If you look at here, First the stairs we walked through is at the back If we walk this way to the gap, another entrance is connected to the ground heading its way to the subway station Here is another place where you could go to the subway In each corner, there is a stair connected to the ground So through that stairs it could be connected to the city And through such gaps it allows sunlight through sidewindows If you look at the material, it's a little bit mirrored stainless steel When I first came here the thing I felt unique was that this is a material people don't usually use the architect used lots of shiny stainless steel But if you look at it like towards the library he used a stainless steel called perforated steel sheet I don't precisely know the intention of the architect if you use shiny silver stainless steel it reflects the light making the space beneath much more bright So it used consistently shiny, reflective stainless steel on the window frames, and peforated steel plate I would show you as I get inside If you get inside, actual perforated steel plate looks transparent if you look at it from inside One of the things we have to be aware here is The rear side of the provincial office In fact, this provincial office is very important and the rear side is also very historic But commonly when we construct buildings older buildings have a thing called 'facadeness' Architects put a lot of effort in the facade and if you say the rear side it's a space people don't actually care so it's just roughly finished So when we come down here one of the point that's unfortunate is that we only get to look at the rear side So we've dug down a lot so you can see the pilings almost two or three stories high. and then on the top, there's a three-story building on top of that. Exposing that could be one way, Here you can see that the slope is slightly off to one side. through this, we could sit in a little bit of angle we could see the rear side like a screen But the problem of implementing screen here is covering the rear side of historic architecture So the way it took is building a crude frame with a steel structure as you could see here placing bunch of LEDs in between. Low resolution, for sure This has the similar effect with the perforated steel plate It looks like there is a wall but for real we could see a rear side since it's transparent And when it's evening the light is turned on That screen is actually playing footage So it could show another property Architect use it as such effect Inside this urban space it's an intention of making a open space with media wall You could understand it like this. We could see straight strategy right here When there's a wall the way of solving this is like, 'I think this wall is too much' 'I want to get rid of it' At those times, we could utilize two ways. One is using a media. That's the part up there. Another way is to cover it up with a green space Planting a ivy or a tree to cover it up with the green. It used both ways It covered the top side with media and planted ivy on the bottom side If you look at it here, if you think the wall is like, bad, then you could plant a tree making the first floor transparent but covering the facade with the tree leaves starting from the second-floor level Through this, we could avoid looking like a architecturally overwhelming space. It's built like that So we've looked through the sunken square now let's look at the ground level again. In fact, this is really important From the ground level and sidewalk, we're going down about four stories on the sides, we have these windows revealing the spaces inside so as this staircase goes down, it is designed to go into each of the intermediate levels. In fact, the best thing about this staircase If this staircase was not in exterior This is an exterior staircase, right? If this was an indoor space people would not come so it's trying its best to connect the square at 3 floors beneath with the sidewalk to induce people to outdoor staircase. This project was actually referred to as 'Forest of Light' It's because of this As you look at it here, it's building virtually from where I'm standing. but this building is when viewed from sidewalk level, it's not sticking out. So this is at the same level almost buried in the ground This is skylight windows to below. At sidewalk level, those skylight windows those skylight windows with glass box There's about *70 of them here So even if the place below is an underground space it could receive natural light At the same time, at night the light is turned on this itself gives the impression of lantern It makes the garden of light of the city You could understand it like that So this part is very important part of the concept The reason I brought you here This is one of the only parts in this whole complex that is sticking out to the ground. This is Children's Cultural Center The parts we stood on just before is all like a rooftop garden but this part The roof is on top of us. One floor. Then there's side windows on the right. Then from a pedestrian's perspective after walking down the park all of a sudden, a building opens up next to you All of the children spaces could be seen So if you have to take into consider that In this ground level, all of the horizontal behaviors are held such as walking and driving So part of this place is designed to stand on the rooftop another part is designed to look inside through sideways It consistently changes the relationship with the surrounding Then the other relationship is that There would be parts where roof is designed like a ramp Following up the ramp, It makes different relationship with other buildings and sidewalks That's not a massive change but as people walk through they can consistently experience slight changes If building of 2 or 3 stories was constructed, As I walk through the sidewalk, I would have the same experience It would have become a boring building But if you bring this down and bring a change to these borders Who benefits the most is the buildings across the street So this building is not a self-centered building, And then secondarily, it has a plan to make the buildings across the street better and vitalized. So in long-term perspective, in a perspective of masterplan, the building is significant We haven't even got to the other side. too much to see, for real The reason I brought you here is to show you this hill If you look at the landscape here We're up by 1 or 2 floors. As you're seeing now, If you just walk a few tens of meters, the moment you come up, you can't see any cars the noise decreased for sure. The next benefit is that The heights of the surrounding buildings are the same Whenever I elevate to 1 or 2 floor Builidings in my perspective look much lower That means the sky is seen more As I go up, I can't see any buildings between Mt. Mudeung and this garden It has got trees along the perimeter now It's wiping out all the neighboring buildings So it does the role of low fence As I go up, it gets more quiet, and it makes a scenery of only Mt. Mudeung and I. At downstairs, childeren read books After they get up to this hill, they could play with sunlight. So it's making a safe space, safe playground for these children. It's not only safe, but also open It's a space where you could see more sky It could be understood like that This place is interesting It looks like this is children's library It's a space where we could look at bamboo forest outside and read books I don't know if people actually use it like that The bamboo forest here is narrow and long, we could also see the sunlight But there's no stairs heading to the forest not even one there is no stairs going down in outside To get to the bamboo forest, you must be inside this building and go through here If you go to places like New Jersey, If you have a house, you have a frontyard After you go through the house, you could get to the backyard Then, in general, children play in backyard, where it is more convenient and safe This place has a similar concept This building, the Children Cultural Center itself in a way is a gateway to protect these children. You could have noticed since we felt it if we consistently move through stairs and ramps We enter one place and we go down and down Like this we could constantly, to next place, we say, 'explore' We could find new spaces, like we are on a expedition So this National Asian Cultural is like anthills You get inside and inside, you find another space And then you enter another space and it is again connected to the outside These have endless relationships so this is why I'm telling you the design is really good If there are relationships of such diverse space I could find a space that most fits me Numerous people have a character in places they like So I could choose a place that most suits me here I could find a most suitable place according to my mood If we get out of here this basement level meets the staircase next to the Jeonnam Provincial Office where we started earlier. And if we head here you encounter a place that connects back to the ground So this is a completely complex matrix of stairs In here, if you visit 10 times, you could visit in 10 different routes So it's a very diverse space right here. Yeah, This is very interesting If you look at the center square, there's a children's cultural center on one side and an adult library building on the other side They have the same central square facing each other, and the colors of the space are completely different The difference is the sound Just before, it was very noisy but when we get here, it's really quiet we also have to talk silently The sound really gives impact to the space For this case, there's also a sunken square here But it is little narrow here It's different with the sunken square we saw before Every spaces are little bit different Same thing here, you come in and then you come in from the plaza you see the trees outside If you go down one more level from here, you'll find other hidden spaces. The reason we came down here is to come here to the archive room of National Asian Cultural Center Here, we could see the overall bird's eye view of the architecture we saw till now If you take a look at this mockup, this is where we started former Jeonnam Provincial Office, and 5.18 Democracy Square fountain We are now at somewhere around here So if you look at this in overall, There are two buildings above the ground one on the Children's Cultural Center side and one in this area called the sky yard Here is big exhibition hall, sunlight shouldn't go in there This part is set up as a black box theater. The place we would soon visit Is a place I really like This is the kind of space where there's always a flea market going on So if you go through the Plaza Bridge from this flea market, it leads to Democracy Square Yet, this place and Democratic Square has totally different characters That's because Democratic Square is a historic place gives a impression of plaza infront of Jeonnam Provincial Office For Seoul It would be like Seoul City Hall plaza. So Democratic Square is where political characteristics are strong Here, when we walked to this place, this was a cafe alley. Cafe alley, where young people exist If you head here, there is Joseon University Then it's a space of young people This place is like a playground in front of Hongik University in Seoul. This is the kind of space where you can buy and sell various things So, this entire site is unstructured with each corner having a slightly different context in which it meets And within that, the spaces at the point of contact are all different And I think they made it additionally, they made one escalator here I think that was also a great choice Originally, after we come in here, the only way to the ground level is to go around Making the short cut, the escalator renders the place more diverse. So it could be a ramp to make it less visible or it could be an outside staircase, or it could be an escalator It's a connection of different things, It's intertwined like a spider web Like I said before, this place is like a anthill At outside, it feels like there are nothing but if you break inside, like an anthill, the rooms are consistently connected and connected, It's a space with infinite combination So eventually, if you come back after visiting The building is not in memory Rather, I could only remember people's actions and events That's good architecture "I went and saw it, and the building was so cool." and then you only take a picture Then that's the only memory you have of it. But if we put human and put the event as the protagonist it would differ everytime I visit the building It differs everytime the weather changes That building has a high return rate Over time, it becomes a place where you can converge with that community In that aspect, it's amazing National Asian Cultural Center is like making one small town Buildings are split into multiple buildings So the architect didn't want the theater building to feel like it's part of a huge building and you're walking into an interior space. This want to look like a independent theater So it deliberately separated here so in between there could be sunlight by making a skylight window And then if we look at this box, The finishes we typically saw outside are all perforated steel. So this is also made with the same stainless steel When we look at it from here this looks like outdoor buildings This is the theater, next door is the exhibit hall. Typically, exhibition open from 10 AM to 6PM. There are many people then. The theater mainly performs in the evening typically 7 PM to 8 PM So two spaces both need a lobby But if it was seperated too much lobby space would be wasted. But since two spaces share the same lobby two spaces can use space efficiently without being crowded and overlapping In that sense, the arrangement was made with good understanding of the exhibition and performance spaces. We could understand it like that. We're here above the exhibit hall In the city center, there are a few thousand square meters of grass area We don't see cars around here And this is the south side they laid the grass in the sunniest spot, facing south For this alone, I think it's pretty good In fact, when I always talk about cities I count the number of benches per unit area In that sense, all these wide steps on the many slopes of the Asian Cultural Center are bench Anyone can sit on So in fact, This one area has all the benches needed in this neighborhood Now this is the place we didn't get to see the inside, but it's the rear side of the theater we saw at the lobby It's only slightly off the ground If we go little further, we would see 5.18 Democracy Square From there, we would cross the bridge and head to the plaza. Concrete bridge is crowded with people It reminds me of Ponte Vecchio in Firenze Today, we came to the National Asian Cultural Center located in Jeonnam Province GwangJu We've walked around for about 3 hours This architecture can be summarized as the 'Secret Garden' of GwangJu We could understand it like that If we take another expression it's an 'anthill full with culture' we could also interpret it like that so finding the places that are hidden exploring and seeking them That was very interesting, to be honest There were about hundred facial expressions of Gwangju citizens we met today Inside the architecture, there were lots of vessels that could hold different expressions, Starting from bigger one to smaller one the vessels were very diverse, which was very pleasing to see Plus, the relationship with the earth is significant. There were parts that went into the ground parts that were next to the ground parts that were above the ground It have many different relationship with the ground In here, I think I could have different facial expression whenever I come here It's the kind of space you could spend hours and never get bored The building that stands in complete antithesis to this National Asian Cultural Center is DDP in Dongdaemun, Seoul. It is very similar in size and the surrounding context is also very similar Both have a historical context Yet, the two buildings have totally different characteristics In case of DDP, It started with the concept of making a hill the architecture itself stands out Tourists actually come from overseas to see it DDP is a morphologically interesting architecture But compared to National Asian Cultural Center, It doesn't have much space to embrace that many expressions and events The biggest reason is that it only exists in the form, the program inside and the outside space that building creates don't have any connection between Most of the building is same perforated steel sheet But it's just a sculptural structure wrapped in perforated steel sheeting. However, in case of National Asian Cultural Center, it doesn't have any form Instead, it created various spaces each vessels designed to embrace each people's life We could divide the architecture into architecture with or without form I believe the more mature type of architecture is this National Asian Cultural Center As time goes on, people's lives would be added to the building and the layer and the depth would be enhanced DDP is also a great architecture, of course The building itself creates another layers inside What we call architecture doesn't have one right answer But there is two different, contrasting architectures in South Korea So I hope if you would visit two places in once you could make a comparison, and increase your understanding in architecture First of all, public architecture starts after it is complete it depends on how you would manage it In my opinion, I visited here a lot whenever I come here, I think it is great that neighboring citizens possess the outdoor spaces and utilize the space with diverse festivals Even if you make the space, if people don't use it it is useless Public architecture depends on who and how uses it well it changes its meaning dependent to such factors In fact, there are buildings that are built to be used well and there are buildings that are not This place is 10 years old If we came here 10 years ago, it wouldn't had been this good. That's because the landscape would have been not complete Great architecture, at last is completed by the landscape And that landscape is created after periods of time Especially for this architecture lots of the parts are filled with trees to use it as citizen's park For example, the trees on the hill would not have been as big 10 years ago Yet, it would grow more As time flies by, the trees would get more and more thick When the architecture was first constructed, the architecture was 9 and nature was 1 It would gradually be reversed The architecture would gradually be old However, as nature keeps growing it would reach a balance So I think this architecture well combined those factors. Today we came to Jeonnam Province Gwangju to introduce you this great architecture It's National Asian Cultural Center When you have time, you could come over could enjoy about a day There's lots of good places nearby cafes, for example I had lunch in restaurant nearby the side menus are all delicious You would not regret coming here
