South Korean studio BUS Architecture has completed a mixed-use building in the Seoul, featuring bands of windows set into its brick facades that decrease in size as they wrap around to the rear.

The building in the Mapo district is positioned on an L-shaped corner site connected to a main road with well-established shops and businesses on one side and a quieter sub-street on the other.
The area reaching back from the main street is the narrowest portion of the site, but the architects wanted to find a way to activate this space and encourage more pedestrians to enter the building.

A lane was created that extends through the building to connect the two streets on either side. A short set of steps leads from the main road to the path, which is set between the neighbouring buildings and is flanked by a paved courtyard. "The door to the road is always open, sometimes serving as a shortcut for pedestrians to cross the street, or sometimes as a small yard for pedestrians' brief rest," said BUS Architecture.
Where it meets the courtyard, the building's facade curls down to create an uninterrupted surface. A window ledge set into this wall provides a casual perch next to a bench built into the wall lining the paved area.

The arrangement of the building was determined by a desire to achieve the maximum possible floor area. Planning regulations determined that the office spaces on the top two levels needed to be set back from the main facade.

The client had reques...