Upon completion, the 490 meter tall Solomon Tower, part of South Korea’s World Business Center in Busan (WBCB) designed by New York-based Asymptote Architecture, is poised to become one of the tallest buildings in Asia. The tower was commissioned as part of an international design competition organized by the Busan International Architectural Culture Festival (BIACF) and the Busan City municipality in 2008.

Asymptote’s design for the Solomon Tower is composed of a collection of buildings, employing a system analogous to bundled columns, in order to achieve structural stability. The three distinct towers are joined at a strong, unified base, later breaking up, gaining formal autonomy as the towers separate and ascend. The towers break apart and begin to create a kind of interstitial, negative space that approximates a very tall courtyard, as the facades of the three towers are rather close to one another. This project demonstrates an architecturally-striking response to the question of a large, business district office tower. The tower utilizes an approach towards negative and positive space, structure, and form to achieve a unique architectural symbol.