Lotte World Tower picked as one of the most exciting architectural projects

The Lotte World Tower in Seoul slated to be completed this year has been included for the “eight of the most exciting architectural projects” by the BBC.

According to the BBC on Sunday, architectural critic Jonathan Glancey picked the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, Tate Modern in London and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as architectures that deserve close attention in 2016.

Selecting the Lotte World Tower, Glancey explained that he would put much importance on political and social meanings of the building rather than architectural aspects. He said that once completed, the Tower would be the tallest skyscraper in the Korean Peninsula at 555 meters high, comparing it to the 330-meter Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. North Korea began the construction of Ryugyong Hotel began in 1987 as a joint project with France but the hotel remains incomplete and is called a “ghost hotel.” Glancey said that the two Koreas have been squaring up to each other for the past 70 years, a proxy war fought with architecture is surely better than a deadly one waged with armaments.”

Other architectures such as the Canaletto Tower (United Kingdom), World One Tower (India), Tippet Rise Arts Center (United States), the Museum of Local Zinc Mining (Norway), Downing College in Cambridge (United Kingdom) were also on the list. As for the reason to select low-rise buildings, he said that such modest and appropriate designs as these three cultural projects offer a counterbalance to the ways in which global cities are thrusting upwards, and both creating and consuming architecture and culture on a titanic scale.

sykim@donga.com