Heterojunctional Barrier
Pavilion in Park
2008-2012
Location Paju, Gyounggi Prov. Korea
Typology Exhibition Hall
Status Completed
Client SH Corporation
Size 450m²
This project considers the Gaon Lake Park in which the building is located as a significant contextual reference. The large park is sitting in the middle of a huge neighborhood with apartment complexes, two hours from Seoul metropolitan area. This unique type of construction is typical of Korean urban development—building and selling thousands of housing units at one time. Although this kind of development contains potential adverse side effects for the future, the landscape is more positively designed than the apartment complexes in preserving the natural wetland which is left as the first entity in the park.
The design focus is on the conflict created between the pedestrian bridge and the first topographical relationship. It was an unavoidable assignment to precisely fabricate the connection from the bridge to an “almost accidentally given” site. As the massive urban development left the backside hill of the building as an “isolated green area,” the dissonant relationship paradoxically becomes a clue for positioning the construction by visualizing this conflict.
This pavilion functions mainly for the exhibition and administrative offices of the park. Considering the pedestrian accesses and the functional use, the radii of the arcs which are casted on different levels formalize the hidden tension of two contrasting entities—the linear pedestrian bridge and the natural topography. From the tensional relationship, the front curved façade visualizes a symbolic “barrier” containing the program. As the continuous hallway connects the functional spaces, the inner layer behind the hallway has a series of rooms, a staircase, restrooms and a sunken garden.