The new complex, in terms of its size and variety of functions, is quite comparable to the whole block, is located in the Hapcheon-dong area, next to the metro station of the same name. It was the neighborhood with a large transport hub that prompted the architects to the main planning idea: the public space Mecenatpolis is organized in the form of several spirals and therefore echoes the seething human streams that do not dry out in this part of the city even at night.
Mecenatpolis includes three high-rise buildings - two residential towers and one office, and the architects made the space between them multi-level and filled with greenery. The center of the composition is a round square, "wrapped" around the perimeter of ramps of pedestrian galleries leading to shopping and cultural centers. Similar galleries and paths rush from the square to each of the towers - trying to connect all three buildings with a system of comfortable pedestrian communications, the architects actually draw on the master plan a flower with a pronounced core and several large petals.
Instead of a single stylobate, traditional for such complexes, a complexly organized city-wide space appears here, in which the border between the external and internal is erased. Numerous crossings, glazed bridges and squares can be used by everyone - someone is attracted by the opportunity to visit the cafes and shops located here, while someone uses the Mecenatpolis navigation only to get from the station to the city by the shortest route.
And if the skyscrapers are faced with glass of greenish shades, then the architects dress the facades of the public center in natural stone. This material perfectly emphasizes the plasticity of numerous bends - creamy beige facades seem to flow, attracting the attention of passers-by. And in order not to turn the intricacies of terraces and paths into a completely stone jungle, architects at each level break squares - somewhere these are very small blotches of greenery, literally a few tubs with trees or a couple of flower beds, and somewhere full-fledged gardens, in the shade which you can hide from the hot Korean sun.
A. M.
