SFC Co., Ltd., a company dedicated to cultural flexibility that researches, develops, and manufactures specialty chemical materials, is planning to establish a second research institute and laboratory building in the Foreign Investment Zone within the Ochang Science and Industrial Complex.
As industrial complexes are being developed to foster local industries, they function as communities driven by capital logic, necessitating that each plot within the complex maintain its own sense of autonomy. The SFC Research Institute was designed under the premise that research and production areas—such as laboratories handling chemical substances and cleanrooms—must be organically linked with welfare areas that provide amenities for researchers. Furthermore, to enhance researchers’ productivity, we planned a cluster of research and production areas that encourages interaction by allowing free movement between laboratories and cleanrooms. Additionally, while separating the welfare areas—where residents can build a community—into distinct units, we established a rest area as a mediating space that connects these zones and serves as the site’s “breathing space.” With the research laboratory building completed in 2013 and construction of the cleanroom building scheduled to begin in 2014, the SFC Research Institute will be realized as a functional yet enriching space where researchers can think creatively, fulfilling the client’s vision.