Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Zaha Hadid Architects + Samoo Architects & Engineers · Seoul, South Korea · 2014
Dongdaemun Design Plaza is a vast curving cultural complex inserted into one of Seoul’s most active commercial districts. Zaha Hadid Architects organized exhibition halls, design facilities, public circulation and a landscaped park within a continuous aluminium-clad form whose surfaces flow between wall, roof and plaza. The building deliberately avoids a conventional front façade, encouraging movement around and through the complex. Opened in 2014, DDP became a major contemporary landmark and a highly visible example of Seoul’s use of design institutions and ambitious architecture as instruments of urban redevelopment.