BO-DA Architecture and Neri&Hu won 2017 AZ Awards of Merit for devising an office headquarters and a chapel that are equally inspiring and elegant.
Project: Group 8 Headquarters
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Firm: BO-DA Architecture, South Korea
Team: Melody Song and Xinyi Wang with Minyuk Chai
The headquarters of this production company serves the many needs of a five-team workforce. To encourage both independence and interconnectedness, BO-DA Architecture devised a five-storey office of two stacked forms – joined by a central window-clad stairwell – that fit beautifully into their tight, sloping site. On the three floors that sit fully above grade, each team is given an entire wing to itself, while the split-level design enables easy communication.
The building is as conducive to relaxation as it is to work: the bottom levels include a sunken garden, a floor made from beautiful multi-hued wood, and a two-storey vinyl LP library.
Project: Suzhou Chapel
Location: Suzhou, China
Firm: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, China
Team: Rossana Hu and Lyndon Neri with Jerry Guo, Shirley Hsu, Brian Lo, Maia Peck, Simin Qiu, Begona Sebastian, Dana Wu and Nellie Yang
This chapel is a study in elegance and juxtaposition. Visitors enter through a maze of textured brick walls leading to the central structure: a milky cube clad in perforated metal skin. By day, the building presents a blank white facade, but after dark, glowing windows appear through the screen. Interiors are finished with such simple, evocative materials as concrete and charcoal-hued brick, while the pitched ceiling is adorned with wooden slats. Gleaming pendant lamps hang from its trusses – the only showy flourish in this minimalist masterpiece.