Client: Seoul Metropolitan Government

Place: Seoul, South Korea

Date: 2023 Competition

Type: Leisure

Area: 52,500m2

Budget: Undisclosed

AZPML

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Ivaylo Nachev, George Foundos

Our proposal for the new Sejong Center for Performing Arts in Yeouido Park is aimed to provide Seoul with a new infrastructure needed for a metropolis that has now become one of the global cultural centers for performing arts. Music, cinema and design are some of the fields where Seoul has recently acquired global success, which this facility will aim to represent.

The new building sits in Yeouido Park and we have designed it to act as a large public canopy.

The building is divided in two parts: one is the performance spaces and the stage machinery, and the other is a socle, which is integrated in the park topography, containing all the complementary programs:

-Exhibition Hall, Rehearsal Rooms, Education, Administration and Management, Convenient Facilities/Retail/Food, Parking

The socle will form a platform at level +21.40 over the water level, which will be seamlessly connected with the Yeouido Park topography to the West of the new Center.

The Performance Halls will be placed above this platform with all the public foyers being located on the socle platform. The foyers become an elevated space, shielded from the elements from where visitors to the center or to the Park can enjoy a vantage point over the park and over the Riverfront.

Auditorium Typology

We propose a large auditorium with a capacity of up to 7-8000 people when the space is used with a standing crowd. We propose to use a single stand typology to create a more collective experience for the audience and simpler access and evacuation systems.

We propose the same type for the 800-seat performance space, and we have located both on opposite sides of the scenic box, with back-to-back proscenia to be able to use them together in a single event with a central stage, like an arena.

The scenic box is organized using a high standard, capable to host almost any genre, including operas and other large-scale spectacles. The two scenes are located back-to-back so they use each other as a retroscene. Each one of the scenes has also generous side-scenes on both sides. Altogether they constitute a six-zone system where stages can be produced or stored during performances with maximum versatility apt to the best international standards for scenic machinery. The two proscenia exceed 22m wide by 12m height for maximum flexibility.The flytower has a height of 18m below the scenic gridiron.

Structural Typology

The roofs for the auditoria have been designed to minimize the structural costs of covering such a large span, by using anticlastic surfaces of tensioned cables spanning 75m x103m in the large auditorium. The cables will be covered with a 150mm warped steel deck covered by a 20mm thick layer of insulation wrapped by a rigid waterproofing membrane. The waterproofing membrane will be covered by solar collectors designed as scales to be able to adjust to the warped geometry of the roofs. Using these construction type we are aiming not only to reduce the structural costs of the building, but also its weight and its carbon footprint.