Five of the world’s top architects will compete to draft a master plan for a US$28 billion international business hub aimed at transforming the South Korean capital, developers said yesterday.
“This is one of the biggest projects we have ever done,” said Nina Libeskind of the New York-based Studio Daniel Libeskind.
“It is the soul of Seoul,” she told a press conference about the planned 57-hectare development in Yongsan district, close to the city center.
A private consortium, including top business group Samsung, plans by 2016 to develop the railway and warehouse area into a “Dreamhub” that comprises offices, a hotel, residential units and entertainment and cultural centers.
The riverside site will link to a public park to be developed on the location of the current US army base, which is scheduled to move in two years.
The contract is to design a landmark tower and create a master plan for the development, almost half of which should be parks or roads.
Developers and architects said they see the project as a chance to give the architecturally undistinguished city of 14 million people a new heart.
Much of Seoul was destroyed in the 1950-1953 Korean War and redeveloped hastily during the economic boom which began in the 1960s.
“For the last several decades nobody even thought about the quality of space, the quality of the city, because our growth was too fast,” said Rah Woo-chun of Korean architectural firm Samoo, which is coordinating the project.
“This is the right time,” to do so, Rah said, adding that the “Dreamhub” could be a core for South Korea’s future development.
While the nation built its economic miracle on state-backed industrial conglomerates, the government says it must now become more of a high-tech and knowledge-based economy.
It hopes to make Seoul the financial hub of Northeast Asia.
“This is all about belief and optimism for the future ... and I think it’s very exciting,” Libeskind said.
Andy Bow of Britain’s Foster and Partners said central business districts can be sterile areas after office hours.
“It has to be the answer, to build more densely in the center and to stop the spread out into the suburbs,” he said.
US firms Asymptote, Jerde and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are also taking part in the contest, with the winner to be announced in November. Construction work will start in 2011.
All five competitors have been involved in major developments worldwide.
Daniel Libeskind is the master planner behind the redevelopment of New York’s World Trade Center site, a project in which Foster and Partners are also involved.
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