The renovation of 696-26 Space GU office begins with an architectural approach that seeks to enhance spatial quality by subtracting the excesses left behind by past development logic at a turning point in the post-growth urban era.

Yeoksam-dong, located in Seoul’s Gangnam district, has long undergone high-density, accelerated development centered on maximizing floor area ratio (FAR). In this process, many buildings have prioritized functional and spatial maximization, resulting in structural overlaps and indiscriminate extensions. However, this model has reached its limits in terms of long-term adaptability and spatial flexibility, and the current urban condition now calls for reconfiguration.

The project removes temporary additions and unauthorized extensions from the existing building, revealing irregular façades and misaligned masses. These exposed conditions are reinterpreted as a foundation for a new spatial composition. The irregular surfaces are transformed into vertically stacked terraces of varying depth and character, each forming distinct relationships with its surrounding environment. These terraces mediate the interaction between interior space and the urban exterior, shifting the architectural logic from a fixed volume to a more fluid spatial flow.

A new metal frame is installed on the façade, supporting folded perforated aluminum panels. These panels do not create a solid boundary but instead form a porous threshold through visual transparency, light, shadow, and reflection. Depending on the viewer’s position and lighting conditions, the panels generate multiple visual effects—reflection, transmission, shadow, and overlay—transforming the façade from a static surface into a time-sensitive and sensory-responsive skin. This materiality allows the architecture to engage more flexibly with the city.

Rather than serving as a fixed envelope, the outer skin functions as a temporal and responsive membrane. It dissolves conventional separations and repositions the building within the context of environmental and urban relationships.

This project is not a simple renovation but a spatial reorganization of architectural elements left over from floor area-driven development. It adjusts the scattered and excessive components of the building into a new order, reconfiguring not only its internal programming but also its external interactions, sensory experiences, and spatial flows. In doing so, it offers an alternative architectural strategy for revitalizing buildings caught in a state of surplus, repositioning them meaningfully within their urban fabric.

Architects : Narrative Architects
Lead Architects : Sihong Kim, Namin Hwang
Location : Seoul, Republic of Korea