Galleria Fashion Hall is prominently situated in the Apgujeong-dong district, on of the trendiest commercial districts in Seoul. In October 2003 the Galleria hired UN Studio to design a new façade and interior to mark the store's transformation (in their own marketing-originated words) "from novel to noble", becoming more "luxurious" while remaining "trendy and unique".
For the main circulation corridors the lighting is integrated within the dropped ceiling. The illumination of the corridor is designed as a continuous lighting element, which consist of linear rail following the direction of the corridors and bending whenever there is a change in direction.
The visual theme chosen for the façade design is that of a geometrical pattern based upon the circle which is repeated and generates a surface. In total 4330 glass discs are hung from a metal sub-structure that is directly mounted on the existing concrete cladding of the department store. The glass discs are made of sandblasted laminated glass, including a special dicroic foil. Testing different materials and combinations of foil and glass finishes was essential during the process and several on site mock-ups were made in order to test and forecast the effects generated during day and night.
