Bowl-shaped River Culture Pavilion by Asymptote in River Restoration Project

Ian Mutuli
Updated on
Ian Mutuli

Ian Mutuli

Founder and Managing Editor of Archute. He is also a graduate architect from The University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Get Smarter On Architecture and Design

Get the 3-minute weekly newsletter keeping 5K+ designers in the loop.

Enter your Email to Sign up

Side-bar-footer-forum

During the 2012 World Expo in South Korea, Asymptote took part in designing a unique bowl-shaped pavilion, which was presented at the international fair in conjunction with the Four Rivers Restoration Project. This project aimed to retain the ecological balance of the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeong San rivers.

The Pavilion was one of the four that were presented in the expo and each Pavilion was a dedication to one of the four rivers. Asymptote's design was an interesting bowl-like structure clad in ETFE plastic pillows to give a quilted texture and make the exterior walls appear to have a silvery color.

The Pavilion is nested on an artificial peninsula projecting into the river in Daegu, South Korea and surrounded by a serene, breathtaking natural environment. The building itself is on top of a man-made hill within the peninsula. Its striking form has set it apart as a strong focal point against a remarkably outstanding panoramic landscape.

Visitors enter through an underground tunnel that leads to exhibition galleries located both above and below the ground. The main exhibition space is characterized by a 60-meter-long projection screen that allows moving imagery to bring character into the space.

The base of the building is surrounded by a shallow pool of water that reflects light to increase the atmospheric quality of the building enclosure. The architects wanted to capture a completely different environment inside the Pavilion, so while the exterior of the structure captures the quality of changing light with open sky and the river as a backdrop, the interiors are darkened and almost feel closed and airtight. The whole point is to capture the deeply engaging multimedia environment inside the building which is highlighted only by projections of the abstracted and re-conceptualized qualities of the surrounding site.

The Asymptote architects wanted the visitors to experience an interplay between the real experience brought about by the water, sky and landscape surrounding the building to the exterior, and the intangible experience presented through multimedia to the interior. The whole experience comes to a climax on the roof, where a large pond reflecting the sky is integrated into an observation terrace that allows the visitors to look beyond and around the site and far into its natural surroundings from a new perspective.

You may also want to explore the fascinating blend of traditional and modern architecture in our South Korean project article, Lotte World Tower, by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

Project Information

Architect: Asymptote Architecture
Design: Hani Rashid, Lise Anne Couture
Local Architect: EGA Seoul
Client: Kwater Korea
Size: 3,200 m2
Location: Daegu, South Korea

Ian Mutuli

About the author

Ian Mutuli

Founder and Managing Editor of Archute. He is also a graduate architect from The University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Related Articles

Petronas Towers, the World’s Tallest Twin Towers by César Pelli

What used to be the world’s tallest towers may have been overthrown by other super skyscrapers since 2004 but the ...

Tiny Homes for Sale You Can Buy and Move-in Right Away

Two decades back, if someone had suggested that we could purchase homes online, we likely would have dismissed the idea. ...

Tosin Dada Studios Rejuvenates Egbeda Community Centre, Nigeria

A derelict structure in the Egbeda community in Nigeria was left strewn of its architectural dignity by time. The client ...