"Tall Buildings are our National Pride and Landmarks"

(Korean CTBUH Chairman KwangRyangChung)

- Choosing the topic of the conference as Tall Building construction safety measures seems like a well-timed decision.

Currently, the 123 floor/545m high Lotte Tower is being constructed in Seoul. Additionally, Hyundai Group has announced the construction of a tall building to be constructed on the recently obtained KEPCO site. And the public's interest is high.

Recent issues have been receiving a lot of attention, such as sinkholes, tall building fires, natural disasters (earthquake, hurricane, etc.), and concerns about safety have led to mild insecurity. Therefore, our council chose safety considerationsin tall buildings(structure, fire, disaster prevention) as the topic for our recent conference. The presenters chosen wereprimarily engineers who have done design work for fire, disaster, and hazard prevention in actual tall building projectsin hopes of receiving realistic and practical advice from them.

- You are the first Korean CTBUH chairman since its establishment who is also a CEO. What is your vision for managing the council as a CEO?

Korean CTBUH began as a chapter of CTBUH(Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). The chapter was establishedin 2008, and the former chairmen have builta good foundation. The board members are made up of professors, architects and engineers, all working together to fill in the parts that are still missing andconducting the affairs of the chapter without much difficulty. 

Our council is made up of architects, engineers, research facilities, construction companies and universities. Compared to other councils, more diverse practical matters are dealt with, so—asa professional architectural structural engineer—Istrive to develop Korea's tall building technology and industry with the experience and concerns of one who participates in the construction of tall buildings.

- How is the domestic tall building trend? It seems that our society has many psychologicalbarriers to accepting tall buildings.

It is hard to compare us with the Middle East and China. However, Korea has about 80 tall buildings over 200m. Currently, many of the world's tallest buildings—BurjKhalifa, Petronas Tower in Malaysia, Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the new landmark of Singapore), and other tall buildings worldwide—were constructed by Korean construction companies. Korea's tall building construction technology is equal to the world standard. However, planning tall building projects, comprehensive management,design planning, and engineering background skills arestill lacking.

Tall buildings are technology-integrated structures requiringthe world's best technology and specialists in architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and otherconstruction-related fields to prepare counter measures for possible fire, disaster, terrorist attacks, and other safety-related scenarios. In other words, tall buildings are safer than regular buildings. Sinkholes are a different situation because it cannot be confirmedwhether tall buildings cause the sinkholes. Rather, they seem to bemore related to the domestic social phenomenon of maximizing our limited land resources and effectivelyusing underground space (basements, subway construction, water and sewage, etc.).

- What is the forecast for tall building structures?

We need to see tall buildings as an industry, not simply architecture. As mentioned above, the recently constructed BurjKhalifa and Marina Bay Sands Hotel are bringing in tourists, and various industries are sprouting up as a result of these landmarks.

Domestic tall buildings are mostly apartment buildings, but now we need to put efforts into tall buildings as landmarks to increase our national pride. From the Middle Eastto China and Southeast Asia,the passion for tall buildings is spreading, so we need concentrate our abilities on developing tall building design and technology to stay competitive in the tall building construction market.

- Any final comments?

All buildings in Korea are built according to the law and codes.These codes,made by developed countries, are organized so that the developer, architect and engineer can use them effectively. However, current Korean codes are for mid-rise buildings and there are parts that are not suitable for tall buildings. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the applicable standards.

The purpose of the codes is not merely for regulation but are alsoa system to help develop the tall building industry. Up until now, we have used developed countries' standards and codes to fill in our deficiencies, but this is not compatible for the whole system and could lead to errors from filling in the missing pieces fragment by fragment. Therefore, by investigating our tall building design and using our construction expertise to modify the local code and standards, we can make a global standard that properly reflects the characteristics of tall buildings. Assistance from the government is needed so that the structure, safety, and disaster prevention measures can be applied with consistency in Korean tall buildings. Once these standards and codes have been made, the global market—whereinterest in tall building is growing—willrefer to our codes when designing and constructing tall buildings, which will behelpfulfor Korean construction companies in winning service contracts and construction contracts.