UNStudio Designs Gyeongdo Island, a new Sustainable Leisure Destination in South Korea

Written by Christele Harrouk
Published on May 22, 2020

UNStudio has recently designed the masterplan for Gyeongdo Island, a new sustainable leisure destination in South Korea. Driven by nature, the 470,000 m2 buildings and public spaces are centered on the qualities of a green environment.

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Creating preventive infrastructures and a more resilient built environment, the Gyeongdo Island master plan “offer continuous motion and flow”.Contrasting with city life, the project provides a healthy and natural environment where culture and nature exist in harmony.

Inspired by the Korean garden, the master plan seamlessly merges natural and manmade environments. Multiple landscapes re-imagine the concept of the garden in unique and individual ways, specific to each development. In addition, the project makes space for a lush forest, enabling “a dynamic and changing landscape that will offer different experiences to recurrent visitors”.

Located at the southern part of the Korean peninsula, 2 km away from the shoreline of the city of Yeosu, the island includes access to both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, the new development “offers a rich program of amenities, activities, and infrastructure, including among others, an exclusive hotel, private villas, holiday apartments, an outdoor-indoor water park resort, shopping center, marinas, and a cable-car”.

Focusing on sustainable design, both the masterplan and building design follow passive and active strategies. The structures are embedded in the landscape and follow its natural morphology while public spaces are designed at the human scale. “Considering orientation for best solar gain, compact and dense development for efficiency in infrastructure investment and materiality that focus on bio-design, the development offers optimum qualities of sustainability and resiliency”.

On another hand, the project generates three distinct neighborhoods: the Gyeongdo Gateway, the Sunrise Waterfront, and the Sea Breeze Coast. While the Gyeongdo Gateway forms the main entrance to the island, featuring a port, a cable car station, a marina, and a bridge, the Sunrise Waterfront generates the leisure heart of the island with hotels, apartments, private villas, a waterpark, and an artificial pool and beach. Finally, the Sea Breeze Coast is part of the more secluded and environmentally protected area of the island, comprising a 5-star hotel, and villas.