Text and description provided by the architects. Korean beauty giant Amorepacific’s cube-shaped headquarters, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, is punctuated with voids filled with trees and pools.
| Client | Amorepacific Corporation |
| Architect | David Chipperfield Architects Berlin |
| Partner | David Chipperfield, Christoph Felger, Harald Müller |
| Project architect | Hans Krause |
| Executive architect | HAEAHN Architecture, KESSON |
| Site supervision | Kunwon Engineeing |
| General contractor | Hyundai Engineering & Construction |
| Design engineer | Arup Deutschland |
| Signage | L2M3 communication design |
| Landscape architect | SeoAhn |
Arranged around a central courtyard, three of the building’s facades have large voids that open the building to the surrounding city, and serve as platforms for what the architects describe as “hanging gardens”.
Amorepacific is South Korea’s largest beauty company and the fourteenth largest in the world. It is famous for its cosmetics innovations including cushion technology and BB creams.
Founded in 1945, the company headquarters has been located in the same site in Seoul’s city centre since 1956. The new Chipperfield-designed headquarters is intended to demonstrate its continued ambitions as a global company.
David Chipperfield Architects has clad the building in brise-soleil that deflect sunlight and gives the pale facade a soft and hazy quality.
This covering doesn’t reach to the ground floor, which has been instead left open with just a glass facade surrounding the atrium.
The ground floor contains the reception area, along with an art museum and tea room that’s open to the public.
On the first floor there’s an auditorium and a childcare centre, as well as a place for customers to come and test the company’s products. A lower ground floor holds further exhibition and retails spaces.
The auditorium stretches to the third floor, with escalators between floors connecting the covered central area, which is lit by skylights under a courtyard pool above.
The first void containing a roof garden is cut through the the southeast facing facade on the fourth floor, and extends through to the central courtyard. Glass balustrades allow for uninterrupted views of the skyline.
A restaurant, café, fitness suite and healing centre surround the courtyard.
Open plan offices occupy the horseshoe-shaped floor plates from the fifth to the ninth floor. On the tenth floor an opening on the northwest facade forms the second outdoor area, with the horseshoe-shaped floor plates containing offices extending a further six floors.