Completed in 1970, Samil Building had been the highest structure in Korea until 63 Building appeared 15 years later. Rapidly deteriorated for the past 50 years, however, Samil Building has been gradually forgotten in our memories. How the Cheonggye Elevated Highway, the past symbol of modernization, was demolished and the neighboring streets have changed let us discover a possibility that Samil Building could be reborn. That is, following the traces of Joong-up Kim, the architect of this building, we discovered its values and maintained its original form while reclaiming its time-honored reputation as the future value of sustainability.
The socially-minded client appreciated the value of this building more than its property value, as a modern architectural asset of Seoul. His first concern was how to improve its legibility amongst the surrounding concrete jungle and upcycle it to the functional needs of contemporary office with the same original form. The second concern was how to remodel it under the legal requirements. The key concern was about the fire prevention district regulations made under Japanese occupation and to conserve curtain walls. Since 1970, this building has rapidly degraded in its curtain walls, the replacement of which became a pressing matter, and the fire prevention district regulations also made it hard to maintain the curtain walls as they were. Thus, we observed the legal regulation but worked on the promotion of remodeling through our expert team.
