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What image does Samsung Electronics evoke? Perhaps a high-tech invention developed by the company, like an 8 mm VCR, digital video disk recorder, 10-gram ultra light mobile phone, wireless Internet phone, wristwatch-style mobile phone, the smallest tuner in the world, or a 24in., wide-screen TFT-LCD. But for the San Francisco design firm The Burdick Group, "Samsung Electronics" conjured ideas of a garden-a concept on which the firm based its designs for the lobby of Samsung Headquarters in Seoul, Korea.
This lobby, known as the Garden of Samsung Electronics, accentuates the strengths of a company adept at embracing new technologies and advancing them in innovative products. The client required that Samsung's flat screen LCD monitors be present in the program, but other than that, The Burdick Group had a "clean envelope," says Susan Burdick, principal in charge of design. She, along with the other principal in charge, Bruce Burdick, searched for a metaphor that would lend itself to an interesting design, while relating to the dynamic of the company. "We were determined to create a lobby differing from the typical corporate arena and to communicate this division of Samsung's strengths in a natural and indirect way;' says Susan Burdick. The solution was a series of stylized garden elements.
Extending across the width of the building, the lobby functions from both sides. "We just capitalized on what the lobby structure gave us," she continues, by situating Spring Garden and Garden Fountain on one side, Summer Garden and Garden Tree on the...