Comprised of six buildings on two adjacent parcels in the Umyeon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea, the Samsung R+D design delivers on a complex program requiring a low maintenance landscape that provides restorative outdoor spaces at a variety of scales, visually unity for the campus and an enhancement of safety and security.
Site design focused on the concept of sustainability and abstracted ecological form expressed through “Successional Snapshots,” an interpretation of nature represented at one particular stage in succession and composes them across the site. Strong orthogonal relationships harmonize with the architecture and suggest the cluster of ideas through the network of people and data creating technological advancement. Remnants of early rural settlement are expressed as low walls that negotiate the site topography and serves as the barrier walls. Native grasses and shrubs blanket the site in monoculture plantings much like their natural phenomenon, representing the earliest stages of succession, while colonizing groves of sapling trees punctuate the ground plane, reminiscent of intermediate successional stages.
Sunken Courtyards, each composed with its unique interpretation of the site’s natural history vary between visual or occupiable gardens, depending on adjacent architectural uses. Sapling bosques extend architectural lines into the landscape while providing screening and drawing the eye to the mountains beyond the site. Sculptural landforms are inspired by escarpments of rock and natural cliffs found in the area. A sapling grove is lifted and celebrated atop a moss-covered earthen landform as an abstraction of trees on the adjacent mountains. The green-roof and roof terraces design concept views nature through a digitized technological filter that pixilates the landscape through the use of cells that contain one of three types of low contrasting ground cover or one of three paver tones. These precise and provocative visual gardens strike a harmonious dialogue with technological advances within the campus.
Pacific Design Center
Once surrounded by barren plazas and impenetrable landscapes, the Pacific Design Center’s environment and image have been dramatically transformed by a complete redesign that includes parks, plazas, water features, cafes, lighting, and graphics. A two-acre open space area along San Vicente Boulevard has been transformed into a public park and gathering space,...
Alipay Headquarters
The new the Hangzhou Alipay Headquarters is located between the Xi Xi wetlands and downtown Hangzhou, a city renowned for its rich culture and beautiful landscapes. Hills and small mountains surround the headquarters building in three directions, and in the fourth lies downtown Hangzhou. Three landscape “movements” derived from openings in the building direct ...
Burj Khalifa
Playing on the theme of “A Tower in a Park,” this shaded landscape creates a compelling oasis of green, with distinct areas to serve the tower’s hotel, residential, spa and corporate office areas. The visitor begins at the main arrival court at the base of the tower, where the “prow” of the building intersects a grand circular court—a “water room” defined by f...
Ballpark Village 200
SWA/Balsley has been contracted for full district-wide landscape services for this exciting new urban redevelopment, located directly across the street from Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
This downtown revitalization effort includes creating an iconic, unified district identity, strengthening pedestrian connection to the d...