Daum Communiations Corp. has been continuing corporate relocation to the Jeju Island for the past nine years and is soon to complete the Daum Space.2, the company’s third building in Jeju, following the Daum Global Medial Center (GMC) and the Daum Space.1. While the Space.1 is a structure which significantly reflects the symbolic message that Daum meets the Jeju Island and a strong will of the architect, the Space.2 is the outcome of designing both the substructure (building) and the superstructure (programmes) together, through the participation by and sharing among Daum employees as real users, based on their individual expertise. This paper seeks to elaborate as to how the Client Committee for the Daum Space.2 was formed, what the committee has done and what it is making as an outcome.
The methods of sharing and participation by the Space.2 Client Committee were as follows: coming up with ideas through brainwriting; creating user research reports based on interviews with the Daum empolyees stationed in Jeju who were selected based on diverse criteria; and proceeding with quantitative questionnaires on the entire group of Daum employees in Jeju. In addition, the products of those activities were utilised as criteria for design guidelines for a request for proposal (RFP) and selecting an architect. The outcomes are also being used consistently by the participants of the committee for the interior design for the Daum Space.2, designing organizational culture programmes, the CEO’s speeches for Daum executives and employees and in encouraging employees for their participation in the .2 Programme, etc.
Although the Daum Space.2 Client Committee was officially closed after its activities for four months, the collaboration between Daum employees and architects is still going on, such as a joint seminar between Daum employees and architects on the theme of the ‘Convergence of Architecture and Internet Service’, where discussions were held concerning the ‘shape of a village as a creative midtown resided by Daum employees’ and ‘the possibility of convergence between architecture and Internet Service’. Also, Daum employees in Jeju have recently formed an in-house club for house building to share and work together on their respective dreams of dream houses. These activities are all an extension of the Daum Space.2 Client Committee, which created values through ‘sharing’ and ‘participation’. Through these, I anticipate seeing a possibility of user-centered architecture and of ‘creative life designs’ through consilience and collaboration between architecture and Internet service.