Seongsu Shoe Works

Seongsu-dong, Seoul

A 1970s shoe factory in Seongsu turned into 14 workshops and a shared shop.

A four-story 1970s concrete factory with steel windows and a galvanized stair tower, its ground floor opened to a narrow street of workshops.

The street front, with the shop open through the old roller-door bays.

Type

Reuse

Status

Completed

Place

Seongsu-dong, Seoul

Year

2022–2025

Area

1,860 m² / 20,020 ft²

Client

Ttukseom Makers Cooperative

Team

Martin Vale, Owen Marsh, Hana Ishikawa

Images

AI-generated imagery

Brief

A cooperative of shoemakers and leatherworkers needed 14 workshops, a shop at street level and a training room, at rents its members could afford.

Site

A four-story concrete factory on a narrow street of small workshops, empty since 2016.

Approach

We kept the concrete frame and the steel windows, and took out the later partitions. A new stair and lift sit in a steel tower in the old loading bay, freeing the floors. The shop is open to the street through the old roller-door openings. Workshop fronts are timber and glass, so the work stays on view.

Outcome

Completed in 2025, with Dalbit Architects of Seoul as local architect of record. All 14 workshops are let.

Ground floor plan, 1:200

Inside the ground-floor shop, rows of old concrete columns lead to the street through open roller-door bays.

The ground-floor shop, looking back to the street.

Looking up through the flights of a galvanized steel stair beside the old concrete frame.

The new stair inside the tower.

Section through the new stair tower, 1:100

An upper workshop floor: timber-and-glass workshop fronts along a concrete corridor, with side light from a row of old steel windows across the floor.

A worn workbench by a concrete column with plain leather hides, hand tools and a row of wooden shoe lasts under a steel-framed window.

The concrete and brick factory at dusk, windows lit on every floor beside the galvanized steel stair tower, the ground-floor shop glowing onto the street.

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