The Kolon One & Only Tower in Seoul, South Korea is a new research laboratory, design studio, and corporate office facility for Kolon Industries, a world leader in the production of lightweight, high-performance textiles for the automotive, construction, and fashion industries. The main west-facing façade of the 12-story Morphosis-designed tower consists of an innovative double-layer facade. An inner folded glazed curtain wall provides a continuous thermal and moisture control layer while an outer sunshade layer mediates solar exposure, daylighting, and glare, and significantly contributes to the building’s aesthetic language. While the form was drawn from the imagery of woven textiles, symbolic of the client’s innovations, the form of the external sunshade is rationalized through four primary form-generating drivers and made possible through advanced digital technologies: 1) solar shading and external views; 2) monocoque structural self-sufficiency; 3) building envelope and sun shade integration; and 4) material and fabrication technologies.
