Daejeon, South Korea | Type: Competition | Size: 65,000 sf | Year: 2027
Our proposal promises to re-connect traditional ways of learning and culture with today through the contemporization of life within the rural mountain village. The imaginative blurring of library and park into a single gesture provides both a new take on what a library can be and how knowledge can be shared amongst various generations, while creating an iconic meeting place amidst the bustling urban life in Daejeon.
The conceptual basis for this project grows from the rich potential in merging the site and the neighbouring park and from project brief’s desire to reinterpret the role of the library in the contemporary city. As evidenced in our diagrams, the key concept in our proposal is the interplay or 'inter-connectedness' between the surrounding community, the park and the library’s program. This is facilitated by ramping the park up towards the west creating a mountain-like form under which the library is nested, suggesting a new typology for both park and library while also providing a nod to the historic mountain towns surrounding Daejeon.
This creative interpretation of the project brief allows for a much larger park and library than would be allowed if we simply designed to the suggested 50% lot coverage.