Architecture firm OMA has completed the Galleria department store in Gwanggyo, South Korea, with a stone facade that has a multifaceted-glass passage cut into it.
Built in the town of Gwanggyo, south of the capital Seoul, the Galleria department store has been designed to be a landmark for the area's housing district.
"The first time we came to Gwanggyo the entire city felt as one big temporary condition, missing any sense of permanence," explained OMA partner Chris van Duijn.
"That is why we conceived the project as a point of gravity for Gwanggyo ? in the shape of a stone cube, as if it was the origin of the city," he told Dezeen.

The cube-shaped building is clad in tessellated triangles of stone. The mix of beige, brown and earthy colours is designed to make the building appear like a slab of rock or a cross-section of earth. Breaking up the geometric shape of the 10-storey department store is a multifaceted-glass passage that is wrapped around the building, projecting from the facade.
"On every level there is a relationship among the loop, the central space and the surrounding shops," said Van Duijn.
"The route is sometimes excavated from the building, eating its way through the stone, and other times the glass openly exits the façade, creating a steel structure of regular triangular grids."

The glass-enclosed passage starts at ground level and passes twice around the building, providing access to each floor and finally the roo...