KEPCO Headquarters
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At a glance
- Project by: H Associates + Haeahn Architecture
- Location: Naju, South Korea
- Program: Office building with green energy theme park
Preview image
© H Associates
Project images
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Concept diagram © H Associates View project image |
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Masterplan © H Associates View project image |
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Atrium concept and analysis © H Associates View project image |
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Wind valley © H Associates View project image |
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Central lobby and atrium © H Associates View project image |
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Physical model © H Associates View project image |
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Secondary lobby © H Associates View project image |
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External view of atrium © H Associates View project image |
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South-north section © H Associates View project image |
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Green energy park plaza © H Associates View project image |
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Plaza canopy © H Associates View project image |
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View of the office tower from the north © H Associates View project image |
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Ground level © H Associates View project image |
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Second level © H Associates View project image |
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Third level © H Associates View project image |
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Tower levels © H Associates View project image |
Architect's statement
Spectacular Park – Creating a Global Landmark & Energy Theme Park
In working to create a new landmark for Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), the design references the earth’s core of energy by creating a series of fissures in the landscape through which a burst of light and energy is released. Thus, rather than creating a landmark through the object-presence of the tower, the landscape is brought into a dynamic relationship with the architecture, shaping the entire site through visual phenomena to embody its new role as a nexus of energy production and management.
Though the project serves firstly as headquarters for KEPCO, it also serves a new public role as a Green Energy Theme Park, to enlighten the public in an experiential way about today’s critical energy issues. Vibrant public spaces and open exhibition programs are woven together with park landscapes, leisure facilities, and interactive pavilions, to help create a thrilling atmosphere of fascination and enjoyment as well as engagement and discovery.
Sustainable Park – Using Green Design
Another design objective was to advocate sustainability by progressively utilizing both passive / active design strategies and on-site renewable energy resources. Solar strategies include a large solar field integrated with on-site parking, and photo-voltaic and shading devices individually articulated on each façade of the tower. Wind-based strategies include an array of turbines which utilize the strong westward winds that blow through the site. Wind sources serve as primary determinants of architectural form, sculpting the podium mass into a “wind valley” that optimizes air movement through the site. Wind is naturally channeled through the wind valley toward the base of the tower where the air volume is captured by the dynamic canopy structures encompassing the junction of valleys. This air is pulled into a helical atrium that wraps through the full height of the tower maximizing passive ventilation of the building due to stack effects and pressure differentials. Water purification and recycling facilities are located on-site, while an eco-stream and pond manage and redirect additional water runoff. Geothermal heat exchangers are embedded in the ground on the periphery of the site in order to reduce active heating and cooling loads.
Synergetic Park – Creating Innovative Space
H’s site strategies challenge the clearly segregated tower /podium / landscape hierarchy which dominates the current office complex typology. This submission inverts the normative scheme to create a polycentric, campus-like organization with dispersed volumes and lively public promenades. Instead of increasingly insular and closed off spaces as one approaches the center of the site, the plan opens up, creating a vibrant and open civic space at the very heart of the site, from which one can access all of the public facilities. These strategies help to ensure that the typical boundaries between the public and institutional realms are dissolved, to create an atmosphere of synergy and exchange.
Within the tower, the circulating atrium connects workers between floors with express stair connections, while also serving as a “breathing spine” for the building, supplying fresh air and natural daylight. These strategies will directly contribute to a socially vibrant and physically comfortable, refreshing workspace.
Smart Park – Creating an Intelligent Environment
The central public plaza serves as the focal point of the entire complex as well as a “hypermedia agora,” an open public space with a canopy used for digital projection, presenting both visitors and office workers with a variable ambience of information display. The canopy could be used to graphically display local energy usage trends and global sustainability issues in an interactive way, using architecture and technology in tandem to engage participants.
For KEPCO, the nation’s energy distributor, information security and technical stability are paramount for its successful functioning. The polycentric, multi-nodal organization of the headquarters helps to create a smart-grid infrastructure with distributed IT cores allowing ubiquitous network access and failsafe security.
H proposes to reposition the nation’s energy corporation as a pioneer in adopting and practising emerging green energy ideals and technologies with its new headquarters. The inventive ways that energy is distributed, consumed, reused and harvested in this dynamic office complex will invite and engage visitors from the community and afar, making the new KEPCO headquarters a provocative and exciting destination for years to come.
Details/Credits
- Project name: KEPCO Headquarters
- Location: Naju, South Korea
- Program: Office building with green energy theme park
- Area: Site Area: 149,370 m2 • Lot Coverage: 25,340 m2 • Built Area: 119,530 m2
- Year: Design: 2010
- More details: Building Height: 29 Stories + 1 Basement Level
- Project by: H Associates + Haeahn Architecture
- Others: Sustainability / MEP Consultants: Cosentini Associates
- Text: Courtesy of H Associates
- Images: Courtesy of H Associates
Related links
- Commercial & Retail Architecture
- Architecture projects from South Korea
- H Associates website
- H Associates
