Yangook Wholesale Grain Market

Client: Seoul Metropolitan Government

Place: Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Date: 2022 Competition, 3^rd Prize

Type: Commercial

Area: 9,270 m2

Budget: 27,839 million KRW

AZPML

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Ivaylo Nachev, Eleonora D’Agostino

UKST Architects

Yukyung Kim, Jihee Choi

The building is conceived as a large, column-free shed. The cold storage area is located underground to benefit from thermal stability. The below ground structure will be in-situ reinforced concrete to provide stability, thermal mass and reduce vibrations. The above ground structure will be made in dry assembled steel to allow for disassembly.

The roof of the building will present a serrated structure, where South faces will be directed to the South to optimize a complete solar cover, while the north facing trusses will allow abundant daylight into the apron platform. The building’s roof is conceived as a solar farm, to maximize the use of solar energy, which combined with a geothermal facility will provide sufficient energy for the building to operate autonomously.

The bands on the roof panels are oriented to the South and tilted 30 degrees to optimize their performance. They will fold down to the ground to shield the polycarbonate double facade which will act as thermal enclosure. The vertical fins could also be covered with solar panels to increase the energy production in winter months.

The apron space will be enclosed, but not fully climatized, except for the offices and the administrative facilities along the East side and the mezzanine level. The jagged, modular geometry of the roof panels and the fins is reminiscent of the geometry of the grain ears.