Kolon One & Only Tower Wins International Architecture Award

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Kolon Group's 'Kolon One&Only Tower,' built in 2018 in the Magok Industrial Complex, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, has won the prestigious International Architecture Awards.

The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies recently announced that the 'Kolon One&Only Tower' was selected as a winning building in the Corporate Office Buildings category at the 'International Architecture Awards 2020,' which recognizes outstanding architectural designs and functions worldwide.

This award is a representative and globally respected honor in the architecture field, selecting winners by category among famous buildings and architects recently constructed worldwide. This year, six buildings were selected in the Corporate Office Buildings category, including the Swiss OLYMPIC HOUSE IOC, the U.S. OCHSNER CENTER FOR INNOVATION, and the UK’s 52 LIME STREET, with the 'Kolon One&Only Tower' being the only winner from Korea.

Construction of the 'Kolon One&Only Tower' began in 2015 and was completed in April 2018. The complex covers a total area of approximately 23,000 pyeong (about 75,900 square meters) and consists of three buildings: a four-story underground section, an eight-story research building above ground, and a ten-story office building above ground (research building, office building, and pilot building).

The design of the 'Kolon One&Only Tower' was undertaken by Morphosis Architects, renowned worldwide for their deconstructivist architecture, and Haeahn Architecture. Morphosis was founded by Thom Mayne, who won the Pritzker Prize, often called the Nobel Prize of architecture, in 2005, and he personally designed the 'Kolon One&Only Tower.' Construction was carried out by Kolon Global.

The 'Kolon One&Only Tower' asserts a strong presence within the Magok Industrial Complex in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, showcasing Kolon's identity through its unique and differentiated design and structure. The building’s front facade symbolizes Kolon’s foundational industry, textiles, and is covered with panels shaped like the woven patterns of knitted fabric when stretched. These panels were realized using advanced new materials developed by Kolon Industries, including Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) and the aramid fiber 'Heracron.'

The interior was designed based on Kolon’s corporate culture that values communication. The structure maximizes shared spaces to enable Kolon’s unique CFC activities, which promote communication and collaboration beyond ranks, job types, and company boundaries. In particular, the 'Grand Stair' connects all floors within the building, serving as a hub for movement and also designed for versatile uses such as discussions, lectures, and exhibitions.

Additionally, the building operates as an eco-friendly facility that achieves energy savings by utilizing renewable energy and the building’s own structure. It optimizes seasonal solar heat gain through the front panels, employs a geothermal heating and cooling system, and maximizes the use of solar power generation, enabling it to drastically reduce heating and cooling energy consumption as a Zero Energy Building. In recognition, the 'Kolon One&Only Tower' became the first building in Korea to receive the LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) at the end of 2018. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system.

Previously, the 'Kolon One&Only Tower' won the Grand Prize and the Citizen Sympathy Special Award at the 36th Seoul Architecture Awards hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2018, and also received the Excellence Award at the Korean Architecture Culture Awards hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport the same year.

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