Geometries and Translucency

By Editorial Staff - 2 October 2025
Dott.Gallina has participated in the project

In Seoul’s Sinsa-dong district, UTA Architects have transformed a compact, irregular site into a striking new office complex for E Company. Constrained by the minimal dimensions of the space and a jagged footprint full of sharp corners, the lot set the rules for a design defined by fragmentation, openness and spatial layering. Amid towers, high-rises and mixed-use buildings, the structure unfolds as a composition of shifting angles, carved voids and light-filled volumes – almost like a modular puzzle, with parts that interlock, separate and recombine. To improve the flow from one part of the neighborhood to another, the ground floor was opened up, creating both visual transparency and a more porous connection to the surrounding streets.

On the upper floors, the same deconstruction of volumes continues in the form of broad, asymmetrical terraces, external staircases and a rhythm of solids and voids that draws natural light reaching deep into the interior. As you move upward, new and unexpected views open up, offering perspectives that were impossible to see from lower levels.

The project also involved dott.gallina, which worked on the walls and upper volume finished with translucent polycarbonate (ArcoPlus 6410 Crystal), a material that gives the structure a pronounced sense of lightness and openness, especially when contrasted with the volume below. Compared to glass, polycarbonate is lighter and more impact resistant. Esthetically, it reacts beautifully to sunlight during the day, creating a spectacular interplay of light, and at night, it allows interior light to glow through, highlighting the building’s shapes and lines. The translucent polycarbonate façades also offer exceptional flexibility: there are no height limits due to the production method and no width limits thanks to the easy lateral joining of panels and a range of seamless corner solutions. These features also improve energy performance, reducing the amount of power from artificial sources and making natural light a key part of illuminating the interior. The E Company office building is, quite literally, built with light.