Contract Magazine - January/February 2018 - 81

By Jean Nayar
Photography by
Nacasa & Partners

The double-height space
captures the sophisticated
and contemporary aesthetic
of the Hyundai brand while
accommodating a wide range
of activities, including training
sessions, seminars, meetings,
performances, and parties.

When Ted Chung, CEO of consumer finance
company Hyundai Capital, tasked Gensler's
Philippe Paré with redesigning the conference
center interiors at the company's headquarters
in Seoul, South Korea, his mandate was simple:
reinvent what a multipurpose assembly
space can do.
"It's always important for the client to set
a clear vision and let us do what we do best," says
Paré, a design principal at Gensler in London who
led the team that created the restrained, rarefied
hall. And having successfully collaborated with the
firm on several previous projects, Hyundai readily
offered Gensler free reign to achieve that mission.

Completing the task, however, was not without
challenges. "When a space must accommodate
various functions, you need to avoid creating interiors
that feel like a compromise because you're trying
to do too many things," Paré says. In this case,
the 6,250-square-foot double-height setting was
to serve an exceptionally wide range of activities,
including training sessions, staff meetings, client
presentations, guest speakers, video streaming,
live performances, and parties.
In addition to addressing the host of functional
objectives, the Gensler team aimed to align the
design with the visual values of the Hyundai brand.
"The client is extremely sophisticated and embraces
a contemporary aesthetic," Paré says. "The Hyundai
ethos with respect to interiors is timeless, yet
always includes something a little bit unexpected
that skews toward an artful approach able to stand
on its own."
The focal point of Gensler's tripartite
concept was "a white canvas or backdrop, like the
cycloramas that photographers use to challenge
the idea of boundaries," according to Paré. The goal
was to transform the once dreary, windowless
auditorium into a shimmering white shell with rounded
edges that both blur the intersections between
the wall and ceiling planes and alter the perception
of the hall. "To pull off that trick, you need really
even illumination that makes the space feel like it
glows," Paré says. The designers seamlessly tucked
LED strips-and other infrastructural components-
into slots that wrap around the walls and ceilings
to keep the shell pristine.
A limited material and color palette defines
the setting and brings it to life like "a Joseph Beuys
art installation," Paré says. Offset in hand-troweled
white acoustical plaster, which both absorbs sound
and contributes to the shell's impeccably smooth
surface, are charcoal gray needle-punched industrial
felt carpet and panels-rigorously fastened
with brass buttons-that add contrasting layers
of texture and color.
Toward the back of the room, additional
contrast comes in the form of a cold-rolled steel
structure dubbed "the machine," which contains
a control room and retractable motorized system
of bleachers, as well as tables, chairs, and a small
pantry. On the upper floor, black cerused oak floors
and fabric-wrapped panels turn a presentation room
into another counterpoint to the ethereal white shell.
"Before the renovation, the space was rarely
used, but now it is an eventful place filled with
lectures, meetings, and more," says Andy Jung,
team manager of Hyundai Capital. "We believe space
can change the way people think, and we strive
to develop spaces to boost employees' pride." Given
its newfound popularity, he says, the new Hyundai
Capital Convention Hall does just that. c

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