Lotte E&C reveals Mokdong reconstruction bid strategy
Mokdong's education, nature linked to Parisian intellect and art
Sixth-generation high-end residential concept centered on lifestyle culture
Nature is another of Mokdong's great assets, not just education. It is a city of forests, where wide pedestrian paths, green spaces, tree-lined streets and parks all come together. Education and forest — those are the first starting points of the Sorbonne Project.
As competition heats up for contracts in the Mokdong New Town reconstruction project — the largest such project in Seoul's southwestern corridor, with a total project value of 30 trillion won ($22.3 billion) — Lotte Engineering & Construction has unveiled its differentiated bid strategy: the Sorbonne Project. The builder aims to combine three elements in its design — the symbolic status of South Korea's premier school district, a pleasant natural environment and artistic value — to create a premium residential community.
A visit to the Mokdong Le-El Gallery near Omokgyo Station in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, on Monday revealed interiors that weave together the area's identity as an education hub with nature and art. Set to officially open in October, the gallery operates as two venues: L'est, near Omokgyo Station, and L'ouest, near the hagwon district in Sinjeong-dong.
Stepping into the L'est gallery, visitors are greeted by the soft strains of a live classical ensemble alongside media art that reinterprets masterworks by Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and other great painters through Le-El's own aesthetic sensibility. A corridor connecting the gallery's spaces — named the "Allée" — is designed as a walking path inspired by the deep forests of France.
Lotte Engineering & Construction presented media art inside the gallery depicting the flow of the Anyangcheon, while a subtle forest fragrance diffused throughout the space organically links nature with the residential concept. Beyond the corridor, the main lounge features works by celebrated Korean artists Kim Tschang-yeul and Kim Whanki, giving the space the feel of a fine art museum.
The decision to design the entire gallery as a cultural and artistic space was deliberate: the company wanted to convey intuitively the core philosophy behind the Sorbonne Project. The vision goes beyond simply building apartments — it seeks to infuse the intellectual depth and artistic sensibility of the Sorbonne, the world-renowned university in Paris, into the broader residential culture.
Mokdong already has a Paris Park, established in 1986 to mark the centenary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and France. Kwon Dong-hyeok, head of Lotte Engineering & Construction's urban renewal team, said the Paris connection was not invented for the project. "We did not suddenly import the image of Paris," he said. "We are again linking Mokdong's longstanding ties with Paris to its identity as an education city."
Lotte Engineering & Construction drew inspiration from the Latin Quarter in Paris — the Quartier Latin — where intellect and art coexist, and from its distinctive academic character and cultural richness. The company plans to extend the residential paradigm beyond the shared attributes of education and natural environment — exemplified by the 23-hectare Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne university at the heart of the Latin Quarter — into the realm of culture and art.
Kwon said "Sorbonne" would not become an official complex name or pet name for Mokdong projects. "What we want to bring is not the name, but the intellectual values the Sorbonne represents," he said. "The core of the Sorbonne Project is combining Mokdong's education and credentials with the intellect and art of Paris."
Lotte Engineering & Construction plans to apply the Sorbonne Project's residential philosophy to all complexes it bids for in Mokdong. To that end, the company is working with internationally renowned architecture firms on specialized designs for each complex it is targeting — including complexes 2, 7, 11 and 14.
The Sorbonne Project will be built around four pillars: developing Mokdong's identity into a forest of the future, making art part of everyday apartment life, making knowledge part of everyday residential life, and extending high-end residential living through service and operations. The company plans to actively incorporate classical music curation and contemporary media art into residential services and community spaces, so residents can experience a high-end lifestyle enriched by culture and art in their daily lives. Forest and garden landscaping will be connected throughout the complex, while a book cafe, a large-scale library and educational care facilities will elevate education from an amenity to a core residential value of the complex.
"In one sentence, it is 'the tree of knowledge becomes the forest of Mokdong,'" Kwon said. "It is not about adding more landscaping to the complex — it is about applying biophilic design that connects forests and gardens so that it becomes part of everyday life."
Through the Sorbonne Project in Mokdong, Lotte Engineering & Construction aims to break the mold of conventional high-end residential development and set a new standard for what it calls "sixth-generation high-end housing" — a concept in which education, nature and art are organically integrated. The strategy is to complete in Mokdong a residential paradigm that goes beyond cutting-edge facilities or visual differentiation to address residents' quality of life and their intellectual and cultural fulfillment.
"We see apartment development in six stages. If the fifth generation was the existing high-end complex, the sixth generation is a high-end complex that incorporates the experience of lifestyle culture," Kwon said. "We are planning to incorporate Lotte's unique strengths — Lotte Hotel, the Lotte Culture Foundation and other group affiliates — into the project and tailor the design to each complex."
hwshin@heraldcorp.com
