COEX & Starfield Library

Character

In 2017, Shinsegae placed 13-metre bookshelves and free seating in the center of a mall it was trying to revive. Starfield Library grew from visitor demand for a meeting place, so its reading room was designed to serve as the social anchor of COEX Mall as well as a library

Around it is a much larger gathering machine. COEX provides 36,007 square metres of exhibition space plus extensive meeting facilities, while the underground mall concentrates shops, restaurants and entertainment around the library. Business events and everyday mall use therefore occupy the same complex for different reasons

The experience

The library occupies 2,800 square metres over two levels, with 13-metre shelves defining the central atrium. The collection holds about 70,000 books, alongside roughly 600 magazine titles, foreign-language material, e-books, tables and power outlets. Reading, laptop work, waiting for someone and attending a talk can all happen in the same open space

Its position matters as much as its scale. Starfield Library sits in the middle of the mall’s main circulation, so visitors moving between subway connections, shops and other COEX facilities naturally pass through or around it. Regular author talks, lectures, poetry readings and book concerts extend that role from seating area to programmed cultural venue

History

COEX began as an exhibition facility in 1979, part of South Korea’s effort to build infrastructure for trade fairs and international business exchange. The exhibition organization KOEX was established in 1986, the Korea World Trade Center complex was completed in 1988, and the venue adopted the COEX name in 1998. Major international meetings later included the 2000 ASEM summit and the 2010 G20 Seoul Summit

The mall beneath the complex went through a different cycle. After a major renovation and reopening in 2014, visitor numbers continued to decline. Shinsegae Property took over mall operations and invested in another renewal. A survey found that many visitors wanted a place to meet, and the company responded with a two-level open library in the mall’s central plaza. Starfield Library opened on May 31, 2017

The strategy produced measurable early effects. By March 2018, the operator estimated that the library had drawn more than 1.7 million people to COEX Mall, while retailers interviewed by Yonhap reported substantially higher customer traffic. Free access made sitting, reading and meeting legitimate uses of prime central mall space

Before you go

Use Starfield Library as the fixed orientation point inside the complex; COEX itself is large enough that exhibition halls, shops and meeting spaces can feel like separate destinations. Samseong Station and Bongeunsa Station both connect directly into the mall, so choose the line that suits the rest of your day and stay indoors once inside. Convention exhibitions and performances follow their own event schedules, while the library works as a straightforward drop-in stop