Status Approved Parking 2000 spaces Alternative names Ecoprism Tower Floor count 15 | Tip 453 m (1,486 ft) Architectural 453 m (1,486 ft) Observatory 397 m (1,302 ft) | |
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Type Leisure and Entertainment Client Korea Land and Housing Corporation Awards and prizes First prize in a National Design Competition sponsored by Korea Land and Housing Corporation Architect GDS Architects,Samoo Architects & Engineers Structural engineer King-Le Chang & Associates | ||
Invisible skyscraper tower infinity
Cheongna City Tower, Tower Infinity or Ecoprism Tower is a tower to be constructed near the Incheon Airport just outside Seoul, South Korea. The tower is dubbed as the World's first invisible tower. The invisibility illusion will be achieved with a high-tech LED facade system. The tower is built primarily for leisure activities. The building will be spread over an area of 145,500 square metres (1,566,000 sq ft). The Design by GDS got first prize in a National Design Competition sponsored by Korea Land and Housing Corporation. South Korean government gave approval to build the tower in September 2013.
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Design Philosophy
GDS won Korea Land Corporation’s design competition in 2008 from 146 entries from 46 countries which aimed to find a new building to symbolize the position of South Korea. Instead of going after height they decided to come up with something innovative that symbolizes Korea. GDS website writes
″The tower subtly demonstrates Korea's rising position in the world by establishing its most powerful presence through diminishing its presence. Korea will have a unique position of having the 'best' tower by having an 'anti-tower'.″
Along with the proposal for Tower Infinity they included this poem to show their design philosophy
Although height is not the selling point of the tower, the tower at 450 metres (1,480 ft) will be the sixth largest tower in the world and will sport the third highest observatory in the world.
Invisibility
The tower is intended to have the ability to "disappear". The tower will have high definition cameras placed at three different levels on all six sides of the tower. The cameras will acquire real time images. These images will be processed and will be stitched into a monolithic image that will be projected by 500 rows of LED screens to the other side of the building, all in real time. Three projections at different heights on all three sections are proposed. The pitch of the LED decides the sharpness of the image - the shorter the pitch, the sharper the image will be. Different levels of illumination are used to achieve different degrees of 'invisibility'.
Because of the arrangement of the LED screens, the tower will appear invisible from only certain points distributed around the tower, ranging from near the tower to Seoul Bridge, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) away. The screens will be so arranged that the tower will be visible from high altitudes, such as to airplanes and birds.
Purpose
Tower Infinity will be used primarily for entertainment and leisure purpose with a 4D theater, restaurants, a water park, landscaped gardens and the third-highest observation deck in the world. When the tower invisible cloak is turned off the projectors may be used as a huge billboard for broadcasting special events and advertisements. Floor plan is open enabling looking multiple floors on ascent. The tower will also have a slow high capacity elevator that will stop at different heights and on a screen real time view of other world monuments will be projected.