Situated within the urban depths of South Korea’s largest shopping and business district, Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park will provide shoppers, tourists and residents of Seoul with a place of leisure, relaxation and refuge when it opens in 2010. Designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid, the project infuses the city’s dense urban center with an emerald core replete with rolling grass-covered roofs.
Hadid’s plans for the 85,000 square meter plaza focus on the needs of the people in this highly populated and densely urbanized district. “A fundamental aim of the scheme is to bring delight and inspiration to the people of Seoul by establishing a cultural hub in the center of one of the busiest and most historic districts of the city,” says Zaha Hadid. The plans for the center include a multi-purpose park, a design museum, a library, and other educational facilities.
The impressive 30,000 square meter park will both give homage to and re-interpret traditional Korean gardening design with reflecting pools, lotus ponds, pebble beds and bamboo grooves. Aside from providing an important green space in the city-center, the plaza will become a keystone between a historic district in the city and the rapidly growing contemporary culture. Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park is located near an ancient city wall which will be a central element of the composition of the building.
Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher joined the Mayor of Seoul, Sei-Hoon Oh, on April 28th for the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Dongdaemun Design Park & Plaza.
+ Zaha Hadid
+ Dongdaemun Design Park & Plaza
+ Zaha Hadid Blog
Via Treehugger
