Press Releases
Lotte World Tower
The Signiel Seoul
Featured Project
The sixth tallest building in the world, this 555-meter Seoul icon reaches heights never before seen in Korea.
A Vertical Neighborhood
Comprising a stacked mixed-use program replete with public space, the sleek, 123-story Lotte World Tower stands out from the city’s rocky topography and provides a cultural landmark for the country’s capital.
This illustrates how connectivity, similar to the walkable centers of Georgian cities, is quite possible—and perhaps even more effective—within a single tall tower.
Connecting the base of the tower to the adjacent Lotte World Mall and Concert Hall, five full floors of retail and commercial space embed the building in the city’s public life.
Making up roughly half of the tower’s height, office floors range from the Lotte Corporation’s headquarters to co-working spaces.
The Signiel Residences are full-service apartments with a separate entrance at ground level.
The Signiel Seoul is a luxury five-star hotel that commands views of the skyline from every room.
The observatory invites the public to view Seoul from above.
The Sky Bridge allows daring visitors to cross between the iconic “ears” of the tower.
The city and visitors to Seoul use Lotte World Tower extensively, attending events, meeting up to shop, riding the elevator to the observatory and Sky Bridge or even the food court on the 31st floor.
Formally Elegant
The tower’s tapered form follows a deliberate logic—as programs shift up the height of the building, floor plates shrink and the exterior narrows into a taut, convex mass. The clean, restrained facade references the fluid lines of Korean ceramics, interrupted by a single seam that tracks up the height of the tower and points towards the historic center of Seoul.
Carved into the interior at each transition between programs, a series of cavities open the tower from within. These precisely placed voids mark the moments where one program gives way to the next and expand outward to accommodate the larger, more generous spaces that public life demands: lobbies, lounges, atriums, and rooms designed for gathering and pause. Where the exterior pulls inward and tapers, the interior pushes back, deepening the form and expanding the space within.
Hidden by a sleek exterior, the stack of programs is punctuated by a cascade of interior open spaces.
Arched ceilings and walls demarcate these spaces from the floors between.
The curved spaces support their assigned programs by providing larger entrance rooms, lobbies, or check-in desks.
Intended to contrast with the smooth taper of the exterior, the spaces trace deep curves between the building envelope and core.
The pattern of curves naturally diminishes and contracts as the tower tapers.
This rhythm is similar to the cascading form of traditionally-cast candlesticks.
Hidden by a sleek exterior, the stack of programs is punctuated by a cascade of interior open spaces.
Arched ceilings and walls demarcate these spaces from the floors between.
The curved spaces support their assigned programs by providing larger entrance rooms, lobbies, or check-in desks.
Intended to contrast with the smooth taper of the exterior, the spaces trace deep curves between the building envelope and core.
The pattern of curves naturally diminishes and contracts as the tower tapers.
This rhythm is similar to the cascading form of traditionally-cast candlesticks.
A Korean Landmark
Nearly twice as high as the next tallest tower in South Korea, Lotte World Tower is visible from almost everywhere in Seoul. It’s distinctive skyline presence is used for way-finding throughout the city, as a canvas for high-profile light shows, a setting for popular TV content, and a widely recognized symbol of the city often used in logos and digital media.
Lotte Concert Hall
The first venue of its kind built in Seoul in 25 years, this full-sized, classical performance venue features world-class acoustics and terraced interiors designed in the vineyard style, its swelling form reacting to the curves of its neighbors.
Lotte World Mall
A unique place for gathering, this 11-story space for entertainment, shopping and special events is defined by a fluidity of circulation, generating an energy that attracts visitors from all over Korea.
Project Details
This KPF-designed tower has become a defining icon of Seoul’s skyline, embraced by the city as a symbol of its technological and infrastructural strength, drawing an estimated 50,000 visitors a day to shop, dine, and gather within it.
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