Seoul, South Korea
2008
Our architect-developer team won a competition to build an exclusive resort park located in Gangneung, on the east coast of Korea. The project is a nuanced composition of natural and man-made spaces consisting of, (1) A 21 story hotel with 250 vacation units, (2) 2 condominium towers, 9 and 13 stories in height situated within a coastal pine forest. Designed as a four-season resort balancing indoor and outdoor recreation within facilities of water park, game park, indoor beach event plaza, fishing deck, floating green space, and hammock park, the project nestles itself in the pine forest. Utilizing the rich natural site, the resort weaves into the landscape and structures outdoor space in order to balance interior and exterior activities to create the resort experience. Analogous to the coral reef, the structure provides a natural recreational ecology, and a minimal disruption to the natural site. Each building is used to structure the varying programmatic elements, dispersed throughout the site. Introducing forest to water to building, as well as bringing land to the ocean, the coral resort project is where natural elements and the built environment merge. Each unit in the complex has a view and a relation to the sea, reinforcing the harmony created in a sustainable and natural approach to living and playing by the sea.