Places of culture always form very significant network in every urban center. The city of Sejong in South Korea will strongly benefit from a new Center for the Performing Arts, as the vital part of the city’s emergence and growth. Designed by Asymptote Architecture, the proposal calls for architecture rooted in the contemporary urban life of Sejong as well as it celebrates the contemporary culture as expressed through elegant and sophisticated design principles.
The aim of the designers of this performing center was to capture the spirit and flavors of local architectural traditions therefore the elegant, curved roofs of pavilions, temples and traditional, monumental buildings are transformed in the architecture of contemporary expression, allowing continuity of culture and city’s 21st century cultural aspirations.
Without any disruption of the existing urban tissue, the Sejong Arts Center is designed to seamlessly connect to the city fabric and where the two main entrances to the building are placed along an east-west axis that cuts diagonally across the site. The axis connects the upper foyer of the Center with the city center to the west and the riverside park and museum district to the east, as it passes through the building’s interior.
The main façade is treated as a large multi-story glass expanse which creates a theatrical display and invites people into the world of performance and theater. With its intricate patterns of louvers the façade performs environmentally as well as aesthetically providing a compelling and dramatic backdrop to the exterior public space that it overlooks.
