The Chungha complex is located in Gangnam, one of the most fashionable districts of modern Seoul, and the whole of South Korea: here expensive hotels coexist with boutiques and trendy restaurants. And if earlier Gangnam was synonymous with chic only for local residents, then over the past year the fame of the area has become truly international thanks to the song "Gangnam Style" (in English transcription Gangnam is written as Gangnam). This hit is so widely known that the architects of MVRDV felt it necessary to tell that they received the order for the reconstruction of Chungha just a few weeks before the publication of the future chart leader, and the delivery of the finished object coincided with the arrival of world fame to its author PSY.
Before the reconstruction, the Chungha building was a typical example of architecture of the 1980s: the facades of beige stone were cut with ribbons by the windows and over time "disappeared" behind numerous signs and advertisements. In addition, the windows of the upper two floors, on which the plastic surgery clinics were located, were tightly curtained, which also did not add expressiveness to the facade. MVRDV had not only to come up with a fundamentally different external appearance of this volume, but also to build it up with an additional floor. The idea behind the renovation of the complex by the Dutch architects is quite simple: the building, the main area of which is occupied by shops, should look like a shop. And since the "eyes" of any shopping center are showcases, they have become the main element of the design of the reconstructed facades.
The building is clad in a snow-white shell of ceramic tiles with a three-dimensional pattern in the form of water bubbles or sea pebbles. Numerous bay windows protrude from this "skin". The openings are in the form of rectangles with rounded corners, but their sizes vary greatly: there are relatively small windows, and wide inserts, and narrow verticals. Their arrangement on the facade evokes associations with the game of Tetris, and the fact that the uppermost frames rise above the ridge of the roof emphasizes their true commercial purpose - these are not just windows, but rather screens designed to accommodate information about the goods and services presented inside. … Text and images are displayed over the original image in the form of all the same water bubbles (only, of course, transparent). In addition, the architects have developed several options for illuminating the openings, which make it possible to constantly change the appearance of the renovated complex.
The reconstruction works were completed within only 9 months, and the customer “threw in” the last six months after the decision was made to add an additional floor. The renovated building houses the Louis Quatorze boutique (on the ground floor), a wedding planner, a service center, two plastic surgery clinics and a café with an outdoor terrace on the highest level.
