SPACE October 2023 (No. 671)
Winning proposal of the Songpa Public Housing Design Competition ©PROTO Architects & Consultants + ATEC Architecture Engineering & Construction + Karo Architects
‘About 100 years ago, the first apartment complex was built, and now it is on the brink of extinction. What will our homes look like 100 years from now?’ The Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation (SH) is planning to develop a public housing complex on approximately 80,000㎡ of land located at 162 Garak-dong, Songpa-gu. This complex will consist of 1150 public housing units, community facilities for residents, and office spaces. To initiate this project, SH organised the Songpa Public Housing Design Competition and posed thirty questions to participants about the future of housing for the next century. Questions like, ‘What does a community based on housing mean in a situation like climate catastrophe?’ and ‘What will housing look like in the AI generation?’ were among them.
On Aug. 29, SH announced the winning design, ‘50 Years of Closure, Towards 100 Years of Openness’, submitted by PROTO Architects & Consultants (principal, Choi Daesung) + ATEC Architecture Engineering & Construction (principal, Kim Sanggil) + Karo Architects (principal, Kim Kijoong). According to the judging panel, Cho Sungik (professor, Hongik University), a unique aspect of the design is the arrangement of small buildings in a cluster shape, redistributing density. This innovation was praised for overcoming the disadvantages of isolated island-shaped apartment complexes.
