The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) is what’s known in the business as an architectural showstopper. Designed by the late great Iraqi-British Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid it’s a breathtakingly adventurous and innovative building like no other (except maybe others by Zaha Hadid). Construction first started in 2009 and was officially inaugurated in 2014 and built at a cost of US$450 million. It’s a modern-day marvel of engineering and a feast for the eyes from every direction. It’s reported to be the world’s largest atypical structure, covered in some 45,000 aluminium panels and using 3-Dimensional Building Information Modelling, so it’s pretty hi-tech. It’s meant to pulsate with light at night, but sadly, as we’re in a week of mourning here in Seoul, and even though a huge surrounding event was planned for New Year’s Eve, the lights were to be turned off in respect. We found out after the fact (NYE itself), that whilst the party and celebration were indeed cancelled, the lights, significantly dimmed, did in fact shine. 

Still, in the very cold bright light of day, this organic building shimmers in the winter sunshine and sinuously flows across its massive, almost 1 million sq feet of urban parkland. It’s so big in fact that it’s hard to take it all in, with the best views possibly from across the road high up in one of the adjacent skyscrapers. From the street side, the building rolls and soars, whilst at the back and in the park itself, it almost disappears amongst the trees and parkland. 

Entering the DDP from underneath is like stepping into the bowels of an alien space craft with its vast soaring white interior and sweeping curved staircase ascending to the light above. There were a few exhibitions on but we chose to see the Immersive-K: Kansong Art and Culture Foundation Media Art Exhibition.  In a maze of rooms that transcend time and space, ‘Immersive’ is the world’s first Korean-style media art exhibition basing itself in traditional Korean art, the foundation of K‑Culture. Each space is dedicated to a particular aspect of Korean culture using immersive digital technology that completely takes over the senses in a 3-Dimensional way (adding sound, music and subtle evocative smells) culminating in a giant long dark room that surrounds you in the breathtaking scenery of Geumgangsan (Diamond Mountain) and the Gwandong region as if soaring over the mountains in a dream. It’s a mesmerising experience.