Our proposal conceives the existing site of the Nodeul Island as a dynamic site in which a number of opposite tendencies meet, in a state of conflict as well as complementarity. Firstly, it can be seen in the context of some highly pressing, urban, functional issues which seem to converge on the specific site. Where for example the function of a metropolitan locality such as the requested Arts-Center, coexists with the operation of a major highway crossing. Secondly, it can be seen in the context of the specific geomorphic conditions of the area, that for example division coexists with unification, as the Hangang River with the Nodeul Island operates both as a boundary between the south-bank and the north-bank but also as a link and mirror reflection of one another.

Thus the Nodeul site is conceived not as an autonomous area but as a potential unity of opposites, a nucleus-unity which, within itself, manifests the polarity of processes and their in-between tension. It could be said that it consists of a “Yin and Yang”  dynamic in which one can witness pairs of opposite factors coexisting, in a way in which the tendency of the one part always refers to the other by means of exclusion as well as interdependence.

Our design-concept aims to map, elaborate and compose these existing pairs of opposites on the total site of the island.  In that context, our proposal for the Seoul Performing Arts Center on the Nodeul Island aims to elaborate on and use as design guidance a series of conflictual and procedural pairs which are not nominative, but real spatial events which operate in the extended greater area.

Such pairs are:

- the earth & the water
- the static & the running
- the natural & the artificial
- the unbuilt & the built
- the ‘green’ & the ‘urban’
- the sense of locality & the sense of mobility and crossing
- the small space (the island) & the large space (the city)
- the north city view/front & the south city view/front
- the river flow from the east & the river flow to the west 
- the pedestrian access & the car access
- the (geometric) rectangular shape of the opera & the (organic) circular shape of the arena
- the focused performance (opera) & the participatory performance (arena)
- the "passive" show-oriented space (opera) & the "interactive" audience-oriented space (arena)