Park1538 sits quietly within the everyday life of Gwangyang, a city long shaped by steel and industry. Rather than stepping away from this identity, the project embraces drawing inspiration from the city’s name itself. Gwang means light, Yang means sunlight, and this idea becomes the soul of the architecture. Curved steel surfaces catch, bend, and guide light across the building, giving form to something that feels both poetic and grounded. The project demonstrates how steel can be shaped into complex, organic geometries while working as architecture and sculpture at once, expressive yet structurally precise.
What appears fluid and effortless is, in reality, the result of intense collaboration. The central challenge was translating a sculptural vision into a structure that could be built, used, and sustained over time. From the sweeping ribs to the cantilevered exhibition hall, nothing followed a standard template. Each structural rib was uniquely designed to respond to specific spatial and functional demands, requiring designers, engineers, and fabricators to work in close alignment from the earliest stages.
Steel became both material and narrative. PosMAC, POSCO’s magnesium aluminium alloy-coated steel, was used for structure and cladding alike, enabling the building’s irregular curves while ensuring durability and precision. Nearly 4,400 tonnes of steel were used, allowing the building itself to stand as a quiet statement on steel’s possibilities beyond industry. Advanced 3D simulations ensured that structure, skin, and space evolved together, maintaining clarity from concept to construction.
More than an architectural object, Park1538 is a place of public memory. Landscaping reintroduces nature to the former industrial site, while recycled steelmaking remnants are embedded into the ground. The result is not just a building, but an open, welcoming space where light, steel, and history come together for the city and its people.
