Summary: The globe-trotting high rise design firm KPF has completed a conceptual design for the Lotte Super Tower 123, which they expect to be the world’s second tallest building when it opens in 2014. Designed for the Lotte Group (a South Korean business conglomerate that specializes in finance, foods, information services, and research and development), the tower will rise 123 stories (1,831 feet) from a site along the Han River in the Jamsil section of Seoul.

Lotte Super Tower 123. Image courtesy of KPF.

The building will contain Lotte Group’s corporate headquarters, but there will be a variety of other programs present in the building as well, making it a true urban mixed-use village unto itself. The building’s first six floors will contain retail space, offices will occupy floors seven thru 60, 25 floors of residential space will rise from floors 61- 85, and a luxury hotel will comprise floors 86-119. The top four floors, however, will contain publicly accessible entertainment spaces. KPF is hoping the project will attain LEED Silver certification.

Projected to be second only to the 160-story Burj Dubai, designed by SOM, Lotte Tower’s architects say that its design references historic Korean ceramics, porcelain, and calligraphy, albeit with a thoroughly modern palette of glass and steel. Much like a piece of minimalist sculpture, the narrow, conical skyscraper is bisected by a recessed, tapering seam that divides the tower into two peaks.

“The tower’s uninterrupted curvature and gentle tapered form is reflective of Korean artistry,” said design principal James von Klemperer, FAIA, in a press release. “The seam that runs from top to bottom of the structure gestures toward the old center of the city. Elegance of form was one of our prime objectives, following Lotte's desire to bestow a beautiful monument to the capital city skyline."

KPF is has a well-established high rise design practice in Asia, and the firm is also working on other landmark projects in South Korea. Their 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center was recently recognized by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats as the Best Tall Building in the World of 2008. New Songdo City, KPF’s urban master plan for a new city of 65,000 people outside of Incheon, South Korea, is organized around a bisecting spine of high-density commercial office space.