Hangang Style

Root Bench in Seoul

 

 

 

Yong Ju Lee Archi­tec­ture

About

Root Bench is the reali­sa­tion of a winning entry for an art compe­ti­tion in the South Korean capital Seoul. It is a circular piece of public furni­ture with a diameter of 30 m that was installed in the grass.

Root Bench shows the dynamic shape of a root spre­a­ding throug­hout the park. The design comes from Yong Ju Lee Archi­tec­ture.

Hangang Art Park

It provides visual stimulus crea­ting strong contrast to the back­ground of spacious outdoor park. The main concept continued from the winning proposal is that the organic shape spraw­ling out from the center creates spatial connec­ti­vity. 

The compe­ti­tion was orga­nised by the Hangang Art Park initia­tive. Hangang Art Park is conti­nuously engaged in raising aware­ness of the Hangang River and its river­side areas through compe­ti­tions and instal­la­tions.

Algorithm

The art piece desi­gned by computer algo­rithm pres­ents dyna­micity from three-dimen­sional geometry. The metal frame with concrete footing supports the overall form as main struc­ture and wooden deck covers it. By applying fami­liar mate­rial for finis­hing, it is easy to use and main­tain as a comfort seat.

As well as suggesting complete shape of circle, Root Bench is fused into the grass and blurs the boun­dary between arti­fi­cial instal­la­tion and natural envi­ron­ment. While commu­ni­ca­ting each other, visi­tors can feel comfor­table in resting space and enjoy the art piece at the same time.

Conclusion

Root Bench is not only art, but also furni­ture — and people can use this furni­ture: You can rest with it, sit on it and lean against it. Root Bench offers three diffe­rent heights: child chair (250mm), adult chair (450mm) and table (75mm). The rhyth­mical shape can suggest fresh stimu­la­tion to Hangang Park and provide various aspects of plea­sure. 

To arti­cu­late spre­a­ding-out branch inten­si­vely, reac­tion-diffu­sion system is applied to design process. This mathe­ma­tical model describes the change in space and time of the concen­tra­tion of one or more chemical subs­tances: local chemical reac­tions in which the subs­tances are trans­formed into each other, and diffu­sion which causes the subs­tances to spread out over a surface in space.

Through the algo­rithm from it, overall radial form is gene­rated with the fore­ground (instal­la­tion) merging into its back­ground (grass).

You don’t have to under­stand that. Loving the project is easier in any case.

We did this.

Project data

Architect

Yong Ju Lee Archi­tec­ture

Client

Hangang Art Park

Project team

Seung Joon Lee, HyeokJun Dong, Seongmin MoonA

Physical address

302–17 Ichon-dong
Yongsan-gu
KOR — Seoul

Opening

2018

Photograph

Kyungsub Shin, Dae Won Lee, Kyung Mo Choi, Yong Ju Lee Archi­tec­ture              

Author

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
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Address
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Am Weit­kamp 17
D‑44795 Bochum

Phone
+49 234 5466 0374
+49 172 4736 332

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