A Symbol for Democracy: The Asian Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea

The city of Gwangju in south-west Korea is the sixth largest city in the country. Ever since a citizens’ revolt demanding democracy was violently suppressed, the city has been a symbol for democracy, human rights and peace.

Due to the historical importance of Gwangju, the government of South Korea decided to build a new complex for culture and arts in the city in order to strengthen Gwangju’s function as a role model and important culture center in Asia. The Asian Culture Complex is being built on a surface area of approx. 120,000m² around several buildings that symbolize the country’s fight for democracy. One of these buildings is the former headquarters of Jeollanam-do Province.

The Asian Culture Center was designed by Korean architect Kyu Sung Woo. The complex’s oval shape represents a non-hierarchical, democratic form, and the special lighting in the interior of the building, in which daylight plays an important role, symbolizes a strong bond with nature.

The partly subterranean Culture Center will contain institutions such as the Asian Culture Institute, the Asian Artplex for performances, a children’s museum and the Asian Culture Creation Center, an institution that contains ateliers and multimedia labs. The roof of the center will accommodate a park, and the complete building will be built using environmentally friendly construction methods that will allow energy savings of up to 40% in comparison to conventional buildings.

As a total of 10 floors will be underground, the project required an excavation that was particularly deep. Clamshells were used to excavate a slurry wall, which was stabilized by reinforcing bar cages.

The impervious wall was continuously concreted. DSI Korea supplied restressible Type 6x0.6" DYWIDAG Strand Anchors in lengths of 18.5-26.5m with a tensioning force of 70t to support the slurry wall. All in all, over 4,000 DYWIDAG Strand Anchors were successfully installed.