Seoul Commune 2026 – future project

Green Towers will be located in the southern part of Seoul, South Korea, in a large-scale urban redevelopment zone that is possibly one of the most densely populated places on Earth. The Seoul Commune 2026 project by Mass Studies is just sheer genius. Covering 393,400 square meters of land and bound by the Han River on the northern side, 15 towers of varying height -from 16 to 53 floors-function like one giant house in this park-like setting.


Seoul Commune 2026 was presented at Art Center’s Open House exhibition which explores the integration of architecture and technology for creating more future-appropriate housing. The project proposes a solution to increasing urban density, rethinking personal space as a hive of small private living areas augmented by larger communal spaces. The hexagonal openings are filled with various types of glass, glass panels are placed in sunny areas for energy efficiency. The towers’ functions are separated into public, private, and commercial, offering purely-private rooms called “cells”, communal spaces for public activity and welfare/medical facilities. The base of the 15 towers, where the park merges with the towers, creates the widest spaces of the site. Above, the first floor is 75 meters wide and extends up to the height of the first five stories. The ground floor space is reserved for pedestrians. Three walkways converge there and circulate around each tower’s elevator core.


This concrete architectural and urban proposal that entirely reconfigures, and consequently develops the existing towers in the park form. The organically-shaped towers take the classic architectural idea of towers in the park, and literally turn the park into the towers themselves, offering a cheeky yet profoundly sustainable and forward-thinking solution to community development.