Architects compete for ‘Dreamhub’

Five of the world’s top architects will compete to develop a master plan for a $28 billion international business hub aimed at transforming the Korean capital, developers said yesterday.

Each firm will be paid $1 million for its efforts.

“This is one of the biggest projects we have ever done,” said Nina Libeskind of New York-based Studio Daniel Libeskind.

“It is the soul of Seoul,” she told a press conference about the planned 57-hectare (140-acre) development in Yongsan District, close to the city center.

A private consortium including Samsung plans to develop by 2016 the railway and warehouse area into a “Dreamhub” comprised of offices, a hotel, residential units and entertainment and cultural centers. The riverside site will link to a public park to be developed on the site of the current U.S. Army base, which is scheduled to move in two years.

The contract is to design a landmark tower and create a master plan for the development, almost half of which should be parks or roads.

Developers and architects said they see the project as a chance to give the architecturally undistinguished city of 14 million people a new heart.

“This is all about belief and optimism for the future ... and I think it’s very exciting,” said Libeskind of the Yongsan project. Andy Bow of Britain’s Foster and Partners said central business districts can be sterile areas after office hours. “It has to be the answer, to build more densely in the center and to stop the spread out into the suburbs,” he said.

U.S. firms Asymptote, Jerde, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are also taking part in the contest, with the winner to be announced in November. Construction work will start in 2011.

Libeskind is the master planner behind the redevelopment of New York’s World Trade Center site, which is expected to face years of delays and significant cost over-runs.

AFP