Project: Korean Embassy in Japan Client: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Location: Tokyo, Japan Design : 2010 scale: Gross Area 17,000㎡ 2stories below ground, 7 stories above ground
Project Description: Any Embassy is a series of contradictions, balancing security with diplomacy, the national identity with the host’s culture. Our desire is to use these contradictions towards a complex and rich experiential tapestry of landscape and structure for the new Korean Embassy in Japan. How does one embody traditional culture for the 21st century? Our strategies were two-fold: respectfully preserve the traditional past through Landscape and seek future aspirations through Architecture. Three Landscape zones—the western event garden, the central deep forest, and eastern view gardens—represent and embody significant cultural and ritualistic design and natural ecosystems. All landscape components consist of all imported plants, soils and materials. In many ways, this literal and symbolic importation of our land complies with the idea that this is the legal land of South Korea.
Interlaced and inserted between these three landscape zones are the office building and the ambassador’s residence. Each structure has a programmatic component that supplements and complements the adjoining landscape. They also embody the leadership role of the government by employing the most current technology in sustainable design. The seven-story office building centers around two atrium spaces; one interior and one exterior and wrapped in a high-performance brise-soleil skin. The skin is comprised of vertical rods of differing radii and spacing that offers a softer and variable surface. The floor plans also are also divided to bottom 3 floors and the upper 3 floors. The ambassador’s residence intimate relationship with the traditional landscape demanded more nuanced references to traditional iconography. For example, the roof design utilized the curvature of the eave—a feature Koreans use to differentiate from the other Asian roofs. The parti of the residence is divided into two main components: the service bar which also acts as a large retaining wall against the central forest. The other component is the formal recreational space which the roof occupies. This other half is designed in section; the front entry focuses on a high two story high volume and the rear compresses the space to view the garden.
