The main intersection of the Guro Digital Complex is a compressed urban scene, densely packed with the business facilities of small, medium, and venture enterprises. Countless people commute here every day, and during lunch and rush hours, the streets are filled with the rapid flow of pedestrians and vehicles. However, within this business city where people spend most of their day, there are few places to pause and step away from the fast pace of work. The Hana Bank Guro Digital Complex building began at the corner of this high-density business district. Instead of simply emptying the space left by shrinking financial branches, it asked: what kind of buffer zone could be created between the city and the bank?

The bank branch, which conventionally occupied the ground floor, was moved to the upper levels. The lower levels facing the street three-dimensionally interweave landscaping, outdoor rest areas, the main lobby, and a culture lounge. Within a modestly sized site, the vehicular access ramp, main entrance, pedestrian spaces, and landscaping all had to be resolved together. The height difference created by the ramp became a clue for organizing the space, rather than an obstacle to be hidden. The tiered stands, lobby, and hemispherical shell connect at different heights, overlapping vehicular circulation, pedestrian movement, waiting, and lingering within a single cross-section.

The building's core, including stairs, elevators, and mechanical spaces, is concentrated on the east side. In the remaining area, an open span of approximately 16 meters and a floor height of 5 meters were secured based on an SRC (Steel Reinforced Concrete) structure. The floor plan, which minimizes fixed columns and boundaries, can be divided and reconnected according to the bank's operational methods and various sizes of work organizations. The high ceilings and wide spans are not merely for a sense of openness, but provide the spatial capacity to accommodate future changes in organizational structures and programs.

The most important boundary of this building does not end at the curtain wall. Outside each floor are maru (wooden decks) and terraces of varying sizes, locations, and depths. Beyond them stands an aluminum louver screen that groups three floors into a single visual unit. The distance between the curtain wall and the screen is not uniform. In some places, it acts as a shallow buffer zone, while in others, it becomes an outdoor deck where people can step out and stay. Within these staggered gaps, an intermediate realm is created between indoors and outdoors, work and rest, the building and the city.

The louver screen is not merely a decorative skin. Three extremely slender aluminum louvers are divided into front and back layers, and a pin penetrating them binds them into a single bundle. The individual members are thin and fragile, but as they stand staggered and bound together, they form a small three-dimensional unit that acts like a truss. As these units aggregate into a large layer three stories high, the envelope appears up close as a fine density of lines, gaps, pins, and reflective surfaces, while from afar, it is read as a soft membrane binding multiple floors together.

Here, the metaphor of a forest is closer to a principle of composition than an imitation of form. Rather than a single thick column or a closed wall creating a boundary, slender and repetitive elements lean on and interweave with each other to control the density of light, sightlines, and wind. Upon the large three-dimensional layer created by the decks and terraces, the small three-dimensional expressions of the louvers and pins are superimposed. Through this dual three-dimensionality, the facade of the Guro building creates not a fixed surface, but a continuously changing boundary.

This envelope is both an aesthetic and functional device. From the inside, it reduces direct sunlight and glare, providing shade and ideal conditions for lingering on the decks. From the outside, it neither completely reveals internal activities nor conceals them like a closed wall. Depending on the movement of pedestrians and the angle of the sun, the overlapping of the louvers opens and closes, transforming the building's outline at the intersection from a flat elevation into a scene with depth.

HANA BETWEEN 1 neither clearly separates nor entirely merges finance and the city, work and rest, or indoors and outdoors. Instead, it places various degrees of distance and depth between them. At ground level, it empties the conventions of a bank branch to embrace the flow of the city, while on the upper levels, it creates an adaptable work environment and flexible outdoor spaces through open spans, decks, and louver screens. Even as finance increasingly moves onto digital screens, the relationships and scenes that a bank building in the city can create begin precisely within these in-between layers.