From the architect. General Korean Parking lot types filled Jukjeon Commercial Area
Parking lot either frankly reveals itself to be a parking lot without any consideration for design or surroundings, or disguises like a commercial facility. However, both cases are not welcomed in a city and ruin the city landscape.
Development districts of New Downtown in Korea that are fully filled with gigantic real estate goods only emphasize the legal maximum floor area ratio. The city identity is represented by the wall-covering signs not the presence of space nor void. The massive box lumps clutter the city with the logic of capitalism that is composed of investment, lease and presale, rather than the respective regional characteristics. This project intended to change the urban landscape through a proposition of a certain symbolically designed icon on a dry city.
Parking lot construction in Korea
In Korea for the development of a new town, developers parcel out the land in lots according to the usage such as a business area and a residence area, based on the Building codes. Parking lot zone also gets placed in major site following the business and residence area zoning program. A plot for a parking lot can be planned with cheaper land price and eased regulations than a business area.
However, it has a restriction that the commercial facility-to-parking facility ratio has to be 2 to 8. After all, deriving the land cost and construction cost with very 20% commercial area is the poor reality of Parking lot construction in Korea. This substandard business value causes the parking buildings to be built without any design concerns for lower construction price.
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© Sun Namgoong © Sun Namgoong
Furthermore, a vicious circle of gradually deteriorating surrounding urban environment continues because of the box-shaped boring parking buildings. The Herma parking building was started from a fundamental consideration of current parking lots in Korea.
- Maximizing the potential commercial uses of the land
- Maximization of lawful commercial area, the possibility of using front terrace
- Composition of the parking ramp and the traffic line
- Increasing the architectural value through front-skin design
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© Sun Namgoong © Sun Namgoong
A parking lot that doesn’t look like one
In order to overcome a realistic limitation of a typical parking building, a new design that can increase the value of commercial facilities, including maximizing the commercial area of the 1st floor and changing the front landscaping area into the terrace, was needed. Through investing in a design that gives emphasis on commercial facilities rather than parking space, the value of the building and the land itself can rise. In other words, through an art gallery-like parking building the owner could get the attractiveand high rental condition of the commercial building.