KBS News tonight featured a fascinating report on recent impressive public buildings in Korea that have been designed with little concern for environmental factors. The public buildings discussed include the Yongin City Hall and Yongsan District Hall in Seoul. These impressive towers of glass represent well Korea’s emergence as a cultural and technological power, but the mass of windows has turned parts of the buildings into saunas for employees. The report includes a scene with public officials using personal electric fans at their desks on top of the internal air conditioning.
The problem is one quite familiar to Americans, but we had hoped Korea might avoid this misstep.
Just like in Canada or the US, Korean companies tend to want to impress rather than focus on holistic design.
Funny how human nature works out to be the same everywhere.
That is the greatest thing I’ve learned from living abroad – people are the same everywhere.