Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners opens in South Korea
26/10/2016.
[Daejeon] South Korea
metalocus, ELENA GALLEGO DE VELASCO
metalocus, ELENA GALLEGO DE VELASCO
Foster+Partners's last state-of-the-art building has landed in 'the Asian Silicon valley' to challenge the design of industrial headquarters. An exercise of sustainability and efficiency looking to spread a message of openness and innovation.
Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Photograph © Nigel Young. Image courtesy of Foster+Partners.
Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Photograph © Nigel Young. Image courtesy of Foster+Partners.
Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Photograph © Nigel Young. Image courtesy of Foster+Partners.
Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Photograph © Nigel Young. Image courtesy of Foster+Partners.
Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Photograph © Nigel Young. Image courtesy of Foster+Partners.
Long section elevation. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
Short section elevation. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
South elevation. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
West elevation. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
Roof plan. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
Floor plan - level 4. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
Ground Floor plan. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
Basement plan - level 1. Hankook Technodome by Foster+Partners in Daejeon, South Korea. Image © Foster+Partners.
The new research and development centre for the Hankook Tire firm was unveiled in Daejeon on the past Tuesday 18th October. The facility is the last work of Foster+Partners studio, and it forms an integral part of Hankook Tire’s new vision for a corporate culture and brand, and the 96,328-square-metre R+D centre aims to attract the industry’s top talent, providing an inspirational place to work, with light filled offices, advanced laboratories and dynamic social spaces to nurture a culture of openness and innovation.
Located in the heart of Asia’s ‘Silicon Valley’, the building is an expression of Hankook Tire’s commitment to technology, quality and rigorous research. It lays emphasis on communication within the workplace, with central meeting pods for spontaneous team meetings. The centrepiece of the state-of-the-art facility are the tyre testing and research laboratories, on display to invited visitors and staff.
The architectural vision was to create a sleek, contemporary and mysterious building with a floating silver roof. Analysis of their existing facilities provided an insight into the testing spaces, which ranged in their requirements from isolation pits to double-height spaces to accommodate specialist equipment. The building’s section was key to resolving this complex spatial puzzle. The building has a dynamic, integrated plan that promotes visual connections between different areas, and the arrangement is highly flexible to enable future changes in use. In profile, the levels step up from four to six storeys, in response to the height restriction imposed by an adjacent government site.
The research spaces extend along a top-lit central spine that runs from the restaurant and entrance in the south to the staff accommodation to the north. Glazed oval meeting pods are suspended within the full-height space, which acts as a light well, drawing daylight through the building. The circulation strategy creates a natural divide between public areas and more sensitive product development zones. A spectacular lobby functions as an exhibition space for the latest product range, with views into the testing areas and the parkland outside.
The centre has attained a LEED ‘Gold’ rating, and integrates a number of sustainable design strategies. Waste heat from the research and development centre is used to heat the adjacent dormitory building, which accommodates visitors and staff, and a lake at the southern entrance to the site harvests rainwater for use in cooling.
David Nelson, Co-Head of Design, Foster + Partners:
Located in the heart of Asia’s ‘Silicon Valley’, the building is an expression of Hankook Tire’s commitment to technology, quality and rigorous research. It lays emphasis on communication within the workplace, with central meeting pods for spontaneous team meetings. The centrepiece of the state-of-the-art facility are the tyre testing and research laboratories, on display to invited visitors and staff.
The architectural vision was to create a sleek, contemporary and mysterious building with a floating silver roof. Analysis of their existing facilities provided an insight into the testing spaces, which ranged in their requirements from isolation pits to double-height spaces to accommodate specialist equipment. The building’s section was key to resolving this complex spatial puzzle. The building has a dynamic, integrated plan that promotes visual connections between different areas, and the arrangement is highly flexible to enable future changes in use. In profile, the levels step up from four to six storeys, in response to the height restriction imposed by an adjacent government site.
The research spaces extend along a top-lit central spine that runs from the restaurant and entrance in the south to the staff accommodation to the north. Glazed oval meeting pods are suspended within the full-height space, which acts as a light well, drawing daylight through the building. The circulation strategy creates a natural divide between public areas and more sensitive product development zones. A spectacular lobby functions as an exhibition space for the latest product range, with views into the testing areas and the parkland outside.
The centre has attained a LEED ‘Gold’ rating, and integrates a number of sustainable design strategies. Waste heat from the research and development centre is used to heat the adjacent dormitory building, which accommodates visitors and staff, and a lake at the southern entrance to the site harvests rainwater for use in cooling.
David Nelson, Co-Head of Design, Foster + Partners:
“When Hankook Tire first came to us, they wanted their new R+D centre to reflect their company values, the quest for quality and belief in rigorous testing. The aesthetic and the brief were both borne from this ambition, and the result is a building that supports innovation while also creating a strong sense of identity.”
Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners:
“The design of the new R+D centre for Hankook Tire responds to the organisation’s specific way of working and their commitment to cutting-edge technology and research. It encapsulates a diverse range of spaces from highly controlled laboratory environments to flexible meeting pods that promote collaboration, all contained within a simple, emblematic form.”
Iwan Jones, Partner, Foster + Partners:
“The key design objectives for, the Hankook Technodome were two-fold – to reinvent the Hankook Tire’s image and to create an integrated working environment for the office and laboratory staff. The spatial arrangement encourages visual connectivity and physical interaction. Testing facilities are on display and circulation and meeting spaces are shared to enhance interaction.”
Huasop Lee, Project Architect, Foster + Partners:
“The challenge was to match both client aspirations and the exacting requirements of a state-of-the-art R+D facility, which was only made possible by the close collaboration between the design and construction teams involved. Beyond the simple form, is a flexible, integrated workplace that will hopefully evoke a sense of unity and pride among the staff at Hankook Tire.”
More information
Architect
Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners Design Team
Norman Foster, David Nelson, Spencer de Grey, Nigel Dancey Giles Robinson, Iwan Jones
Stefano Cesario, Miguel Costa, Sanhita Chaturvedi, Joost Heremans, Chris Johnstone, Sharat Kaicker,Kristi Krueger, Angel Sanchez Lazcano, Huasop Lee Sarah Lister, Eva Palacios, Isidora Radenkovic, Paola Nena Sakits, Nicola Scaranaro, Milena Stojkovic, Vincent Westbrook
Client
Hankook Tire Co. Ltd.
Project owner: Mr Cho, Hyun-bum CSFO & CCMO
Foster + Partners Engineering Team
Roger Ridsdill Smith, Piers Heath, Emma Clifford, Anis Abou Zaki, Ricardo Candel Gurrea, Dimitra Kyrkou, Carole Frising, Rob Slater
Project team
Local Collaborating Architect.- SAMOO
Structural Engineers.- CS Structural Engineering
Civil Engineers.- Saegil
Electrical Engineers.- SEC
Services Consultant.- HIMEC Corporation
Construction Managers.- ITM Corporation
Lighting.- Alto
Interiors.- Dawon
Landscape Consultant.- Solto Associates
Fire Consultant.- Korea Fire Protection UBIS
Sustainability Consultant.- Samoo
NORMAN FOSTER
Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.
Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.
He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.
Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.
