Saemangum Exhibition Center

The Saemangum Exhibition Center is an interesting little project by the firm poly.m.ur, located along the west coast of Korea. While I really love the play between architecture and landscape, there is a more subtle point I hope to make with this project. The design is built upon a reclamation site along the coast of the city Buan. It reminded me of a site that I visited in Bombay several years ago. The whole reclamation idea was quite new to me. I had lived in the Midwest for some time, and before that I had spent most of my adult life in the rocky mountain region, so the idea of reclaiming washed out real estate wasn't really foremost on my mind, but it did bring up an interesting point - what is being reclaimed? Obviously the land is being reclaimed from the ocean, river, etc., but I think there's a deeper purpose in most cases. Why is this particular spot being reclaimed, is it a view, a history, or perhaps an extension of a way of life. In this case, it seems as though this architecture is to embody a vision for the reclaimed land as an economic and cultural way forward for the region, and will undoubtedly have a larger impact going forward. In any design, whether built on reclaimed land or not, will have a similar impact. Architecture is inherently an art of requisition and I would just hope it is deliberate and worthy in its claim. Enjoy.