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Architects: NBBJ in collaboration with Samoo Architects & Engineers: NBBJ (lead designer), Samoo Architects & Engineers (lead architects)
- Area: 1097919 ft²
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Photographs:Park Young-Che, Roland Halbe Photography
Text description provided by the architects. The new headquarters building for Next Human Network (NHN) was developed to embody the corporation’s goal of opening new frontiers through creation and innovation. As such, NBBJ, in collaboration with Samoo Architects & Engineers, designed the ‘Green Factory’, an interactive and sophisticated building offering creative freedom for NHN and its employees.
NHN is Korea’s leading online gaming media and search-based Internet portal. The explosive growth of the company—and the entire industry—required the company to develop a new headquarters that could accommodate the increase in staff, while also creating a dynamic new environment that reflected the company’s unique culture.
NHN’s work relies heavily on computer programming that requires a controlled level of light. The company’s desire to create a transparent tower offering remarkable Southern views created a design challenge. These opposing factors led the design team to a solution involving vertical louvers. The tower’s distinctive green vertical louvers wrap around the building, beneath the glass skin. Each employee can move the louvers as they see fit, allowing a comfortable personal working environment. In turn, this produces an ever fluctuating facade, an icon that represents the individual influence of each employee in the greater NHN network.
The design for NHN’s new corporate office building supports employee creativity and innovation through its interior layout. A column-free space emphasizes the human dynamic of the organization. By allowing people to be more visible to each other, the architecture facilitates communication amongst diverse employees, prompts creative brainstorming, and initiates social interactions.
The new tower houses 4,000 employees and includes several worker amenities including: retail, an 800-seat corporate/community auditorium, a bookstore café, childcare facilities, café lounges, a rooftop garden and sub-grade parking.
