How Dutch architects of Blackpink record label’s Seoul HQ balanced its need for some privacy with visibility

It’s not every day that an architect designs a building with hordes of quaking K-pop fans in mind – and for Ben van Berkel and the architecture studio he co-founded, that day still hasn’t entirely come. “The building is very secure,” he says. “No public access is allowed in general.” In fact, the most any unofficial visitor might see at the new YG Entertainment headquarters in the South Korean capital, Seoul, is a flash of gorgeously styled hair as Big Bang or perhaps Blackpink flit between limousine and lobby. One of the “big three” agencies in the Korean music industry, YG covers the gamut of K-pop production, from record label and talent agency to concert producer. When YG hired architects to design a new headquarters for the company in 2017 it envisaged a workspace worthy OF its major artists – who include the superstar girl group Blackpink and the six-member boy band iKon – and for the employees who oil its musical cogs. The Netherlands-based UNStudio was approached on the strength of its architectural style, which blends bold, futuristic forms with exciting spatial configurations. 5 times Blackpink’s Lisa proved she’s Thailand’s unofficial princess It has a strong reputation in South Korea for, among other projects, the Daegu Wolbae IPARK residential development in the city of Daegu and remodelling the office tower headquarters of business conglomerate Hanwha in Seoul. UNStudio is also designing the upcoming Chungnam Art Museum and Korean National Football Centre in Seoul. The YG brief wasn’t a stretch, says the studio, which worked with local advisory partners Gansam Architects. “We have always worked on cultural buildings, such as our Mercedes-Benz building in Stuttgart,” says van Berkel, referring to the striking museum in southwest Germany that sees up to 800,000 visitors in a good year. “The client was fascinated by some of these. It was a comfortable fit.” The YG Entertainment building was largely completed in 2021; the finishing touches and photography were delayed until this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The dynamic eight-storey building, erected next to the company’s more subtle former headquarters in a partly residential area of Seoul, appears to announce a bright new era for YG. With a striking, curvaceous silhouette in glass and matt aluminium panels, it resembles a giant, gleaming audio speaker. Vast, fully glazed sections and balconies on the park-facing side of the building allow in daylight and create outside space for office workers; these gradually transition to a semi-glazed facade with patterned perforated metal elements and in turn to fully opaque panels. [The client] liked it because it’s a little bit like the image of a K-pop star who might be wonderfully dressed, but where what’s inside is more interesting Ben van Berkel, architect At night the building glows, its internal lighting glimmering through perforations in its outer shell. The building’s design was informed by K-pop and the music industry as a whole, says van Berkel, in its reference to a piece of music equipment and in its more “performative” aspects. Combining dramatic lighting and LED screens that project images of K-pop idols, the design aims to create unexpected moments – or performances – for those who travel through it. One example is the atrium, a soaring four-storey space that creates a second, more secret facade away from the excited public, he says. “[The client] liked it because it’s a little bit like the image of a K-pop star who might be wonderfully dressed, but where what’s inside is more interesting,” he says. “They liked that the inner part was almost more fascinating and surprising than the exterior.” The eye-catching atrium also acts as a kind of central stage for the lower-level offices, recording studios and rehearsal rooms that overlook it. This play between openness and privacy runs throughout the building. “That was a request from the client: that certain things are secret until the release of a record, so must be protected,” says van Berkel. The external shell therefore shields views of some areas, while allowing tantalising glimpses of others. The studio was keen to create light, airy, flexible spaces to encourage movement and interaction – “walkability”, as van Berkel puts it – and balanced these with nooks or rooms that provide for quieter moments. Looking up from the atrium, for example, futuristic, capsule-like meeting rooms set into the inner wall create spaces for quiet work or small private meetings, while still offering views of the atrium and the city beyond it. The building has already been well used by its famous clientele. In 2021, when it was brought into use despite not yet being complete, the 12 members of boy band Treasure fitted comfortably into one of the vast rehearsal spaces along with a camera crew, before conducting a frolicking tour of the space as part of their TV show Treasure Map. Both Treasure and Blackpink have found places in the building to shoot music videos: the former in a spacey first-floor hallway, the latter in a decorative rehearsal room. So how thrilled, genuinely, was van Berkel to be crafting hallowed hallways for a good-sized portion of Gen Z K-pop royalty? “A lot!” he says. “We watched every video and movie you could find, and the amount of K-pop fans among my staff is huge.” As Covid-19 restrictions ease, the architect aims to visit the completed building for the first time this year. As for who he’s most hoping to meet, secrecy is the order of the day. “I’m careful not to name my favourite artist, to be fair,” he says. “I’m not telling.”