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Pair of Velo Towers in Seoul design revealed by Asymptote Architecture
Yet another ambitious project at the Yongsan International Business District in Seoul has been unveiled. New York-based Asymptote Architecture has revealed its plans for a pair of residential towers. The two buildings will sit neatly at the Yongsan Dreamhub development site, arranged as a series of stacked and rotated volumes angled specifically to take in the best views over the Yongsan Park and Han River.
The two towers are connected by a skybridge which is suspended 30 storeys above ground level, providing the residents of both structures with fitness and recreation centres, communal lounges, pools, spas and eateries, as well as a landscaped sky garden. A raised plinth at ground level also offers communal facilities in a light-filled atrium. Residential communities are grouped in six- to eight-storey sections in rotated units which Asymptote Architecture suggests separates The Velo Towers from the typical residential skyscraper concept.
The practice explains: “By breaking down the scale and massing of the two distinct towers into interconnected circular and oblong volumes, the Velo project proposes an alternative architectural and urbanistic response to the repetitive and monolithic austerity of conventional tower design. The recombination of the typical tower form into a new horizontal and vertical configuration enables the formation of a socially engaging and dynamic environmental response.”
Each of the 500 individual apartments vary in size from 45 sq m to 82 sq m and have been deliberately designed to enable the integration of prefabricated plug-in interior components. The external facades have also been conceptualised with prefab parts, including custom moulded composite shells coated in pearlescent automotive paint.
Several other designs for structures at the Yongsan International Business District suggest similar concepts, with BIG’s Cross # Towers and MVRDV’s The Cloud both proposing a pair of towers with connecting skybridges. The latter has attracted large volumes of negative publicity as many critics and members of the public suggested that it was reminiscent of the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks in New York.
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