Casper Mueller Kneer Ltd

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

Casper Mueller Kneer Architects

PHOTOGRAPHER
Paul Riddle

STATUS
Built

YEAR
2017

LOCATION
Seoul, South Korea

TYPE
Commercial › Retail

This Flagship Building for fashion house Celine is located on a prominent corner of Seoul's Cheongdam-dong district.

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam
Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam
Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

The facade concept is developed as a 3-dimensional and volumetric approach, delivering a building with one single expression, strong material identity and crafted quality.

The 7-storey mixed use building has a stepped massing that is unified through a simple brick envelope.

The brick used is a light-coloured terracotta unit developed specifically for the project. It is laid in a complex bond using different lengths and opening types.

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam
Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam
Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

The resulting brick skin resembles a veil, part closed, part transparent displaying a variety of conditions across this animated and tactile fa̤ade.

The brick itself is a long format clay product produced by a small artisan company based in Italy specifically for this project. The brick unit is of unusual dimensions and colour: almost white or very light grey.

Flush mortar joints of matching colour and exaggerated depth are introduced to enhance the monolithic quality of the facade. This brick skin is off-set from the building's thermal envelope by a gap: a type of filter or semi-transparent shield.

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam
Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

The custom designed brick bond offers different transparencies across the facade, from totally closed to very open, with transparencies of up to 50%. The facade reacts to varying programmatic and physical conditions behind this veil.

This results in a pattern across the facade, a type of ornament. Designed on the computer, the complex brick bond was implemented by local bricklayers and without the use of technology.

Through this particular use of the material, the facade has a crafted, hand-made quality with a strong materiality and unique articulation.

Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam


Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam
Celine Flagship Building Cheongdam

Casper Mueller Kneer Ltd
T +44 20 73742682
Casper Mueller Kneer Ltd
Podium Level, Shakespeare Tower, Barbican, London EC2Y 8ND, United Kingdom