Image courtesy Heatherwick Studio.
As the September 26 opening of the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism approaches, another centerpiece has been revealed by its General Director, Thomas Heatherwick: “Wall of Public Life” will be a public outdoor installation in the city’s Songhyeon Green Plaza park, featuring contributions by 24 invited architects, designers, as well as creatives outside of the building profession.
According to Heatherwick’s announcement, each commission measuring 2.4 x 4.8 meters (7.9 x 15.7 feet) represents a fragment of a building that “reimagines how good the outsides of buildings can be.” The 24 fragments will sit vis-à-vis from a 90-meter-long (295 feet), 4-story-high installation dubbed “Humanise Wall,” which the organizers hope will “provoke a public conversation about the ways that buildings make us feel.”
Image courtesy Heatherwick Studio.
“I want the public to take them as a real challenge to the bland, soulless surfaces of buildings that normally get imposed on us all,” shared Heatherwick, who has been advocating for more “joyful” architecture as part of his Humanise campaign. “And I want developers to see the huge variety of Walls and think, why couldn’t some of that apply to a building I am working on? Why stick with what we’ve got, when something like this could transform our experience of living in cities?”
Image courtesy Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.
Among the invited contributors for the installation project is 2022 Pritzker Prize recipient Francis Kéré. “I imagined walls not as barriers but as bridges,” Kéré explained his concept. “One wall will be crafted from Korean pine, a material rich in local history and symbolism. The other will draw from the building traditions of Tiébélé, interpreted through Korean clay. Together, these two walls speak to a shared human story, reminding us that architecture is rooted in connection and community.”
Other commissioned design teams include MAD, Kengo Kuma, 2012 Pritzker winner Wang Shu & Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio, Anupama Kundoo, Hawkins\Brown, Ronald Rael, fashion designer Stella McCartney, Korean-American chef Edward Lee, artist Yinka Shonibare, the Hyundai Motor Company, several Korean design practices, among others.
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