Hanwha Galleria opened a new “Galleria” department store in Gwanggyo, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, last week on March 2. This is the first new store since the Hanwha Group franchise opened one in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, in 2010.
The new store is the largest among five that Hanwha Group operates. Its total floor space is 150,000 square meters, with 73,000 square meters is used as a business area from the basement level to the 12th floor. The building’s exterior has a huge rock-layer pattern, and a prism-like passage that winds around the building from the entrance to the roof. The design deviates from the typical department store business practice of avoiding windows, and allows sunlight to shine on every floor.
Traditional department stores have not installed windows so that customers fully focus on shopping and are not distracted. According to the company, 125,000 granite stones were used to cover the exterior, and the glass passage gives visitors the experience of being in a mine buried for long time in a sedimentary layer.
