Platform-L Contemporary Art Center is a multidisciplinary cultural venue created for the fashion brand Louis Quatorze. The trapezoidal site, bordered by roads on three sides, is reconfigured through two building volumes and an interstitial courtyard, an architectural interpretation of the site’s legal and geometric constraints. The limitation of a 60% building coverage ratio is transformed into a courtyard as a spatial void. This void functions as a transitional space connecting diverse programs, while recalling the character of the traditional Korean Madang(마당) - a shared, open place of pause. To overcome the floor area ratio limit of 150%, a multipurpose underground space was introduced to accommodate various programs efficiently.
The underground live hall, with an 8-meter ceiling height, is conceived as a flexible space equipped with movable walls and retractable seating, allowing it to transform seamlessly between exhibition, performance, and event functions. The building envelope is articulated through a geometric pattern that reinterprets Baroque geometry from the era of Louis XIV, the historical origin of the Louis Quatorze brand. Horizontal louvers inspired by textile weaving expand the perceived scale of the architectural volume, while the courtyard façade emphasizes geometric order and uniformity in contrast to the dynamic exterior. Embedded within the perforated panels of the courtyard is an image of the 17th-century Versailles sky, painted by a court artist during the construction of the Palace of Versailles. By projecting the sky once seen by Louis XIV over 300 years ago into contemporary Seoul, the project reinterprets the brand’s identity through a layered dialogue of time and place.