8.11.11

News | Trip Update from Asia

Back in October, our Design Assoicate, Wing See, embarked on a trip to Asia as part of an architectural scholarship she won while completing her Masters. She is traveling through various parts of Asia visiting landmarks and architectural sites to prepare for an exhibit.  Wing See is now part way through her trip and has sent an update with photos ...so we thought we would share, enjoy!.

I'm having a great time on my trip and am in Seoul, Korea now.  I spent the previous week on Jeju Island, Pusan and Gyeongju which are all different places in Korea.  Jeju is a volcanic island with a coastal town atmosphere.  People hike around with full makeup on.  Not a drop of sweat on their foreheads.  It's pretty impressive.  I look sloppily put together and weak compared to them.  After enduring a few days of that, I saw an amazing architectural project  by one of my architectural heroes, Tadao Ando.  It was a meditation garden and media arts museum (see below). 
Pusan is the second largest city in Korea, and was a stop over destination en route to another town. There is currently a film festival going on there, but I couldn't watch anything because it was all in Korean.  They also have the worlds largest store which is about ten stories of only top luxury brands and probably open 24hrs a day.  It puts fifth avenue to shame.  I couldn't afford to shop there so i just had a coffee and people watched :).
Gyeongju is a historic city and has a lot of ancient Korean structures mixed in with contemporary buildings.  I biked 30km to see a temple built in 751AD!  It was very serene.  On the way, I stumbled on a construction site for a small tourism office.  The site supervisor was kind enough to give me a tour.  They still build in the old tradition from centuries ago.   There were no mechanized tools on site aside from their trucks...everything was cut and assembled by hand even though the city has all the typical modern conveniences you would find anywhere else in the world.  We should give Tino a chisel and unplaned lumber and see what he can do with it!
Finally, I want to thank you again for your generous gift.  I am so grateful to have your encouragement and support.  This iPad is the perfect travel accessory and is really helping me document and share this trip with my family and friends.  The only down side is that it's been really hard to find the perfect iPad case. 

Project: Agora
Architect Mario Botta
Location: Pheonix Island, Jeju, Korea



Program: Club House, outdoor swimming pool, change room, fitness room for a luxury club/ resort.
Notable features: set in the landscape, from a distance appears like a foreign object in form and colour .  From the main elevation, it carves into the landscape, framing panoramic views of the sea and providing spacious support spaces for a beautiful outdoor pool.  Through its crystal clear exterior visitors can see nature’s beauty in all four directions.   Hanging from the top is a 7-meter sphere of stainless steel, which reflects light endlessly to further brighten the interior. The water of the outdoor pool is level with the sea, creating the illusion of swimming in the ocean waves.Material is metal and glass.  The exterior material is  mortarless stone which is local to the region ( lava/ volcanic stone).


Project: Genius Loci
Architect : Tadao Ando
Location: Pheonix Island, Jeju, Korea




Program: Meditation garden and media arts museum.
Notable features: meditation garden follows feng shui principles to create the ideal space to meditate.  Plant life and landscape materials are all indigenous to the region ( stone, pampas grass, lilies, etc).  Meditation is a natural way to ease your mind and deeply relax your body. Genius Loci is a first-rate meditation hall, located at Seopjikoji and named for the traditional guardian spirits of the land. Waterfalls caress both sides of the building, and the peak of Sungsan Mountain lies before you as you pass through the gate. The main corridor has an open roof exposed to blue sky.  The passage between the meditation garden and media arts museum is defined by a water feature, and a long path leading to a framed view to the sea.  The meditation garden is defined by local stone building methods and materials, and the media center is defined by concrete walls.  The media arts center is beneath the garden and can be accessed by a winding ramp that wraps around the museum space.  A perfect expression of jeju's slogan "the place between the sky and the sea"



Project: Busan Film Festival Building
Architect: Coop Himmelblau of Austria
Location: Busan, Korea


Program: building to house film activities in Busan, particularly the Busan International Film festival. 
Noteable features: An unparalleled feat of engineering, the steel-clad Busan Cinema Center calls to mind an inverted pyramid made of building blocks. It boasts a roof — set on an enormous cone-shaped column — said to be the longest free cantilever ever constructed, clocking in at a span of 92 yards, nearly the length of a football field.  Adding to the effect is an elaborate lighting system that can be tailored to events and displayed across the ceiling in full motion graphics. The structure includes a 4,000-seat outdoor cinema located four stories above ground level, which will be used for for opening and closing ceremonies. The theater's 79-by-42-foot screen covers the eastern facade of the center's nine-story main building, dubbed Cinema Mountain. Of note, the ccompleted project doesn't look like the concept renderings!

 And just for fun....











More to come.





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