THE EMPTY ICON, CHEONGNA, 2008
Fact Sheet
Project:
THE EMPTY ICON, CHEONGNA, 2008Status:
COMPETITIONClient:
CITY OF CHEONGNABudget:
N/ASite:
CHEONGNA SEZ, SOUTH KOREA ; SITE AREA / GROSS FLOOR AREA: PROJECT SIZE: 90,000 m2 , HEIGHT: 400mProgram:
OBSERVATION TOWERCredits
Partners in charge:
-Team:
TYPE0 COLLABORATIVE, LONDONCollaborators
Structure:
N/ASustainability:
N/AMEP:
N/ACost analysis:
N/A
As an iconic observation tower for the Cheongna Special Economic Zone, the success of the Cheongna Tower hinges on two key precarious assumptions: the icon’s economic generative potential, and the durability of any iconic image.
The Cheongna Tower is an urban proposal developed to challenge the function of the iconic observation tower as a purely promotional object, instead addressing it as a catalyst capable of triggering activity, programmes and development within and beyond the site.
Instead of a ‘stand-alone’ type which reduces the ability of triggering developments and relies on mere ‘stardom’, the tower is divided into parts to be spread along the edges of the site, thus engaging the surrounding sites not through proximity alone but also by allowing the tower to contribute to the surrounding development plots in the form of public spaces, infrastructure and flow of visitors.
The proposal questions the traditional singularity of the observation tower. The intersecting arches do not form the definitive image of the tower but instead forms a frame or container capable of absorbing other future “Iconic” developments within its form. Thus allowing the City to continuously re-program the tower’s “interior” and adopt different architectural marketing strategies over time albeit greatly limiting the sites of competing “Icons”
The ‘Empty Icon’ can therefore become a test bed for new iconic structures -refreshing the city’s marketing image regularly without compromising the image of the original Landmark.