Shortlisted masterplan for the $28 billion Dream Hub Yongsan International Business District — a 56-acre mixed-use development along Seoul's Han River featuring a landmark tri-part supertall tower, cultural facilities, and an integrated landscape of parks, waterfront promenades, and urban plazas.
Asymptote’s proposal for the Yongsan International Business District — known as Dream Hub — envisioned a new center for Seoul on a 56-acre site bordering the Han River, the Nam Mountains, and the expansive Yongsan Park. One of five firms shortlisted alongside Foster + Partners, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Jerde Partnership, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Asymptote developed a masterplan that drew deeply on the Korean cultural landscape — its architecture, its relationship to nature, and its artistic traditions — while projecting a vision of technological optimism and urban ambition.
Masterplan
The district was organized around a series of landscaped corridors that channeled views toward the Han River and the surrounding mountains, weaving green infrastructure through the dense urban program. Commercial towers, residential blocks, hospitality, and cultural venues were arranged to create a varied skyline of crystalline forms, their faceted glass envelopes calibrated to reflect light and weather in constantly shifting patterns. At the ground plane, a network of public plazas, retail streets, and waterfront promenades established a richly layered pedestrian environment.
Landmark Tower
At the heart of the proposal stood a tri-part landmark tower — designed to be the tallest building in Asia — whose three interlocking volumes rose from a shared base to form a singular iconic silhouette visible across Seoul. The tower’s facade was conceived as a dynamic surface of illuminated pixels that responded to internal activity and external conditions: elevator movements, wind patterns, rainfall, and city events would all register on the building’s skin, making it a real-time barometer of urban life.
Cultural Program
Beyond the commercial and residential core, the masterplan incorporated a constellation of cultural and civic facilities: a state-of-the-art planetarium, a mediateque and digital library, an aqua-garden with illuminated water surfaces offering views of the landmark tower, and a riverfront park with a museum, luxury ferry terminal, and yacht club. Digital screens embedded in building facades throughout the district created a continuous field of information and media exchange.
Competition
The Dream Hub competition represented one of the most ambitious urban development initiatives in Asia at the time. Although Studio Daniel Libeskind was ultimately selected for the masterplan, the project was later suspended amid the global financial crisis. Asymptote’s vision — developed in collaboration with landscape architects Hargreaves Associates — remains one of the firm’s most comprehensive explorations of the city as a dynamic, computationally inflected environment.
