O Se-hoon's Yeouido Financial Hub First Step... Digital Finance Support Center Blueprint Revealed

Winning Entries Announced on the 29th... Total Project Cost 29.4 Billion Won

The first blueprint to transform Yeouido into a Northeast Asian financial hub city has been unveiled.

On the 29th, Seoul City announced that the winning design for the ‘Digital Finance Support Center,’ to be built next to Yeouido Park in Yeongdeungpo-gu, was submitted by ‘Son Minjeong (Daegun Works Architects Office).’

The Digital Finance Center is a core facility aimed at enhancing digital finance capabilities and overseeing the training and support of digital finance talent amid the global trend of digital transformation in the financial industry. It was one of the pledges made by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon during his candidacy and is expected to become a Northeast Asian digital finance hub by linking with Seoul Fintech Lab, Seoul International Financial Center (SIFC), Seoul International Financial Office, and others. The total project cost is approximately 29.4 billion KRW, and it will be constructed with a total floor area of 4,463㎡.

The winning design proposed an abstract symbol revealing the fundamental digital elements 0 and 1. Considering the limited horizontal and vertical conditions of the site, the building’s interior was planned to be as open as possible, using a concrete structure as the base and integrating natural ventilation systems (supply and exhaust ventilation and windows), energy facilities (solar power), and nighttime lighting facilities (media facade) into a technologically intensive building.

The judging committee stated, “The winning design metaphorically creates a landscape based on the digital symbols 0 and 1 and interprets the building’s structure, function, and beauty in an integrated manner,” adding, “It received high praise for presenting a simple and excellent design plan with an efficient floor plan and symbolism and centrality as a digital finance hub.”

The winner will be granted the priority negotiation rights for the architectural design contract. The city plans to complete the design with the winner by 2024, finish construction by March 2027, and then open the facility.

Hong Seon-gi, Director of Future Space Planning at Seoul City, said, “This design competition selected the final winning work through a more transparent and professionally enhanced evaluation system than before,” and added, “We will do our best to ensure that a core facility overseeing digital finance support functions is established in Yeouido based on the winning design.”

Meanwhile, a total of 277 companies registered to participate in this design competition, and 73 works were submitted either individually or jointly, attracting significant interest. Subsequently, the city selected the final winning design through technical evaluations and two rounds of final judging.

To enhance the professionalism of the evaluation quality and ensure fair and transparent judging, the city applied a newly improved design competition system for the first time. Through this, the design competition held two pre-briefing sessions for the judging committee before and after the announcement of the competition, and the entire judging process was disclosed via the ‘Seoul City Design Competition Official YouTube Channel.’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.