Hanwha Group Headquarters Received Grand Prize at World Association of Skyscrapers and Architecture Awards

[Digital Today Correspondent Cho Shin-Eum] Hanwha Group headquarters building (Cheonggyecheon-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul) won the grand prize in the renovation category at the ‘2021 Tall + Urban Innovation’ conference hosted by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). was selected

Among the 29 grand prizes selected by the World Association of Skyscrapers and Architecture this year, Hanwha Building is the only Korean building. The judges paid attention to the fact that it was an eco-friendly building incorporating solar panels.

In addition, it received high marks in the evaluation of sustainability such as innovation and efficiency of the remodeled Hanwha Building, environment, human beings, and community.

The World Association of Skyscrapers and Urban Architecture is the most prestigious international organization on skyscrapers and urban architecture. World-class companies in the architecture field participate as members, and each year they tour major cities around the world and hold a conference to select and present outstanding buildings. This year, due to COVID-19, it was held online for three days from May 18th.

The headquarters of Hanwha Group, established in 1987, was reborn as an eco-friendly building using solar power after 45 months of remodeling from March 2016 to November 2019. The building-integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV) installed on the south and east facades of the building and the photovoltaic panel (PV) installed on the roof generate about 300KWh of electricity per day.

It is replacing the lighting power of the offices where Hanwha employees are working with solar power generation. The solar power generation technology of Hanwha Q CELLS, which is leading the global solar power market, was used here.

After remodeling, Hanwha Building was transformed into an eco-friendly green building by acquiring the green building excellence grade and building energy efficiency grade 1 grade. In addition, the safety of the building (earthquake safety facility grade 1) was secured by earthquake-resistant reinforcement.

At night, landscape lighting that expresses nature, data processing, and energy flow using colorful lights divided into pixels is installed on the exterior wall to provide new pleasure to those passing by Cheonggyecheon.

We also considered a part for communication with the local community and citizens, rather than the corporate office building where only employees enter. The above-ground parking lot has been moved to the basement, and a public rest space has been prepared with media contents that can communicate, such as a media pavilion and a sunken stage where various events are possible.

For the remodeling of the Hanwha Building, UN Studio, a Dutch architectural group, and Gansam Architecture, Korea’s leading architectural design firm, took on the design in collaboration.

During the remodeling period, instead of emptying all floors and carrying out the full-scale construction, the ‘residence construction’ technique was introduced, in which the construction proceeds from the lower floor to the upper floor by four floors. Remodeling works on only some floors first, and when the work is complete, move in and then move on to the other floors. Although the difficulty of construction is high, such as perfect circulation and process planning, it is characterized by excellent economic efficiency as it can maintain rental income during the remodeling period.