David Chipperfield Completes Amorepacific’s Headquarters in Seoul

David Chipperfield Architects announced the completion of the Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul in June 2018. The building stands in Yongsan, in the centre of the city, on the site the cosmetics company has occupied since 1956. It is an office for several thousand employees, and it is also one of the few corporate buildings in Seoul designed to be used by the public.

A cube with gardens

Where most headquarters in the city are towers, this one is a single broad cube of 30 storeys in all, counting its basements. It is arranged around a central courtyard, and three large openings are cut through its sides at different heights. Each holds a garden several storeys tall, with trees, water and seating for staff. The openings bring daylight and air into the deep floors and frame views of Namsan and the city, and from the street they give the heavy volume a surprising lightness.

The facade is covered in thousands of vertical aluminium fins of varying depth. They shade the glass and give the building a soft, pale surface that changes with the light. Chipperfield has spoken of the white porcelain moon jar of the Joseon period as a reference for the building’s calm and its slight imperfection, and of the courtyard of the traditional Korean house.

What the public can use

The ground floor is open on all four sides, and the atrium behind it, three storeys high under a glass roof that carries a shallow pool, works as a covered public square. Around it are cafés, shops and the company’s tea brand, Osulloc.

The Amorepacific Museum of Art occupies the basement and part of the ground floor. It shows both the company’s collection of Korean ceramics, paintings and craft and exhibitions of contemporary art; it opened with a show by the Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and has since presented artists such as Barbara Kruger and Andreas Gursky. A library of exhibition catalogues from around the world is open to visitors in the lobby.

Context

The building opened as Yongsan began to change. The American military base that occupied much of the district for decades has been returning its land in stages for a large public park. The headquarters stands at its edge, beside Sinyongsan station.

It also belongs to a series of notable buildings by foreign architects in Seoul, with Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza and the Leeum museum by Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas. For visitors it is an easy stop: the atrium and museum are free or modestly priced, and Itaewon and Hannam-dong are a short taxi ride away. During Frieze Seoul week each September, the museum usually opens a major exhibition.