Boutique Monaco (Korean: 부띠크모나코) is a 117-metre, 27-storey residential skyscraper in the ward of Seocho-gu in Seoul. The 172-unit residential tower was developed by Bumwoo Co., Ltd. and designed by Minsuk Cho as the working title of "Missing Matrix".[2] The lower five floors are retail and commercial facilities, and the officetel, a type of studio apartment in Korea, sits on the upper floors.[3]
Boutique Monaco is known for its daring design, which includes several recesses that give the building a unique appearance. The 15 "missing spaces" were intentionally left empty to comply with the floor area ratio limit of the site. If the building had been designed as a simple vertical square, it would have exceeded the ratio limit by 10 percent. It met the restriction by removing the chunks from the building.[6]
In addition to addressing the limitation, the 15 voids provide micro-environments on the high-rise building. Each void contains a "sky garden" that can be overlooked from the resident's balcony. Cho intended to combat the high tower's lack of human interaction by injecting more human qualities.[3]
In media
Film
Up to the Sky - Missing Matrix (Boutique Monaco), Seoul. Documentary, Germany, 2012. A film by Sabine Pollmeier and Joachim Haupt, Production: Parnass Film, ZDF, arte, series: Up to the Sky.[7]
