Instagrammability

송도 트리플 스트리트

Year of Completion: 2017

Location: Songdo, Korea

Client: SD Frontier

Triple Street is a 540 meter- long shopping mall in Songdo, a newly developed city within the Incheon Free Economic Zone. A lack of public open space in modern Korea means that commercial venues often play the role of parks of the western world. Young couples can spend the whole day in a shopping mall: starting with a cup of coffee, watching a movie, strolling in an exhibition, having lunch and dinner in between, and even sunbathing in an open space. For younger families with pushcars, this kind of private-public space is a great alternative to picnicking in a park, with convenient parking spaces and barrier-free circulation. Public space as a commercial commodity is an undeniable fact.

Triple Street comprises five plazas which can be utilised as gathering and resting spaces without having to purchase a thing, as well as temporary event venues for the mall. The most critical design concern was to provide a pedestrian-friendly landscape that is also highly ‘instagramable’ in competition with neighboring shopping areas. Given only 12 cm of depth was available between the finished ground floor level and the top of the slab, meaning no planting was possible, PARKKIM seized the opportunity to intensively design the ground plane of the shopping street, without relying on greenery. Different patterns of paving and furniture create a variety of outdoor venues suitable for a contemporary urban lifestyle.

A range of paving materials, from the most conventional to the most unprecedented, were tested both in three-dimensional renderings and mock-up tests on site. While granite pavers are normally considered classy in Korea due to the cost and durability (and their associations with Korean palaces) PARKKIM felt the material too conventional and rigid, restricting the ability to play with various patterns and colors.

Instead ceramic pavers were chosen. Initially the client and the city questioned their possible slipperiness and durability, since the material had rarely been used as outdoor pavers in Korea. Strength tests for multiple thicknesses determined the thinnest pavers possible while maintaining optimal durability. Four different patterns were designed with identical triangulated modules that create a dynamic backdrop both in reality and in the world of SNS . The matching of black and white diffuses a neutral yet elegant atmosphere.