Dec 12, 2025
WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND
concept & vision
a community and cultural center is positioned along the river edge to activate the riverfront inviting walkers-by along the Anyang river in Seoul. APAP OpenSchool is a place for the community to question urban development. To question erasure of street fabric and texture, of shops and stories, of local histories, when new buildings are built and everything else gets demolished. It is a place to gather and to consider the possibility of a different shape for urban progress
design & architecture
eight shipping containers are skewed to a 45 degree angle and combined in a fishbone pattern generating a large arrow-like volume that hovers three meters over the landscape infiltrating the geography and topography of this riverfront, its trees and slopes, opportunistically
program & use
the structure invites, encourages lingering below its covered outdoor, or entering. It’s a space for exhibitions and dialogue, in constant relation to the surrounding city, inside or outside, above and below. At ground level, the footprint of the structure is a public amphitheater that takes advantage of the existing sloping topography allowing views of the river and activating the space below the building for gatherings. One level up, a large, multi-purpose space for meetings and exhibitions, and two artists-in-residence studios. A long decked area, at the third level, stretches over the river with benches and a higher view point on the city
impact & significance
a social space to converse with city and nature defies the orthogonal aspect of the object container, rotated and skewed to adapt to the surrounding geography