Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the new Campus Complex at Ehwa Women's University in Seoul. The day I visited was a rare opportunity as the renowned Architect Dominique Perrault was speaking about this newly opened building. Before the lecture began, I took an hour exploring the contours of this nearly invisible project. It is what I consider to be a non-form in architecture, submerged in its contextual disguise. The length of the building extends as two subterranean halves, linking the primary campus entry gate to the historic Main Hall center of the old campus. It has been dubbed the 'campus valley' although this moniker, in my opinion, is a bit simplistic for what the building expresses and achieves.
Six floors of 66,000 m2 space are configured as a newly grafted landscape. Building and landscape fuse to form an experiential plain; roof as traditional campus quadrangle and promenade path as primary link. The internalized facade and entries are tucked away along a pedestrian road; "the valley". It is a kind of anti-quadrangle when evaluated against the traditional campus 'quad', however when the surrounding roof landscapes mature, it will function as a desired outdoor campus amenity bound by the historical structure of campus form.
The Campus Complex is in an elite class of new environmentally efficient buildings. Interior programs of assembly, dining and administrative functions are conditioned by an energy efficient geothermal heating and cooling system. The earth acts in part as climate moderator against the weather extremes of local conditions. The long glass and stainless steel facades allow natural light to flood the interior space entry corridor. Little artificial lighting is required of internal spaces during daylight hours.
The unpretentious silence of this project is it's defining poetic moment. Architecture too often relies on a 'vocal', or more explicitly visual form to be successful. As counterpoint to this statement, this student center exists as a paired consideration with it's immediate context both visually and functionally. A newly formed building and landscape pairing to be discovered through tactile experience.
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