With a blessing from Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park opened on March 21st. Built on the old Dongdaemun Stadium site, the new landmark dubbed DDP stands four stories high with three underground floors on a sprawling 62,700 square-meter lot and cost nearly 459 million U.S. dollars to build. Its size or building cost aside, DDP is a spectacular structure, something totally different from square buildings we are so used to seeing. It resembles a futuristic silver spaceship with graceful curvatures and an organically connected layout. Seoul has another eye-catching landmark in the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park. Here’s Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.



DDP certainly grabs people’s attention. The great structure is like a gift from world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. Seoul has already declared itself as a city of architecture and it’s changing into a new, architecturally refined metropolis through such programs as City Architect and public architect system. Seoul will also host the 2017 UIA World Congress of Architecture, which will be another turning point for the capital’s architecture.

Dongdaemun used to be the fashion center of Seoul. Shoppers and vendors would crowd the area. Then the spaceship made its landing in the middle of the bustling fashion town. Now the Dongdaemun area will be transformed from a fashion district into a multicultural space. Here’s Mr. Chung Kook-hyun정국현, chief of the DDP Department at the Seoul Design Foundation.

Historically, Dongdaemun had served as a military post and a commercial district, and it’s now a fashion hub. The neighborhood has recently seen a slight decline, but with the arrival of the DDP building, the area will become a creator of new contents, a partner to the surrounding community, and a new testing ground for imaginative children and students studying architecture, design and other creative endeavors. This place will draw lots of tourists, architects, and designers from all over the world.

DDP also stands for “Dream, Design, and Play,” which is the vision of Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park. Envisioning the Eiffel Tower-like landmark in Seoul, what the city government cared the most about was its design. The all-important task of designing the structure went to distinguished architect Zaha Hadid, who received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. She came up with a low-lying, curved building measuring 29 meters at the highest point. Its exterior is covered with some 45 thousand aluminum panels, which gave the building its nickname “the silver spaceship.” Its spatial flexibility also allows varying scenes from different vantage points. Grass is planted on the rooftop and the inside and outside are seamlessly connected.

I major in industrial design and I came here as part of my class assignment. The structure is really famous and I heard it was really difficult putting up the tiles. It looks amazing.

Zaha Hadid explained that she wanted DDP to integrate with its surroundings, like a single landscape. In fact, if seen from afar, it resembles a low hill amid towering buildings. Here again is Mr. Chung Kook-hyun, chief of the DDP Department at the Seoul Design Foundation, to tell us more.

Zaha Hadid incorporated the Korean traditional idea of earth’s energy into her design. This is a low-lying area, so the building represented a small mountain that is very familiar to Koreans. That’s why the structure invokes nostalgia in Koreans.

There are several entrances to DDP, but the easiest and most convenient access is through the subway. Dongdaemun Station is the transfer point for subway lines 2, 3 and 5, and Exit 1 takes you directly to the DDP plaza. Admission fees vary by exhibition hall, but there is a 9,000-won pass that will get you into all sections of DDP. The first stop you would want to make is Art Hall. Here’s the Seoul Design Foundation’s Kim Soo-jeong김수정 to tell us more about DDP’s layout.

There are three main sections – the Art Hall, the Museum and the Biz Center. The Art Hall was first designed solely for holding conventions, but that wasn’t making the best use of the space, so it was turned in to an open studio where fashions shows, concerts, and performances could take place. So the layout was designed to accommodate those events. It will also serve as a venue for product launching shows.

The Art Hall is divided into two open studios, which best typifies Zaha Hadid’s flexible architecture. In particular, Open Studio 1 has the highest ceiling in all the DDP buildings. The cavernous room doesn’t have supporting columns and the entire interior is white, lending to that open, spacious feeling.

Ordinary visitors are likely to frequent the Museum and the Biz Center. The exhibition hall and the design museum in the Museum area will host various shows and exhibits and the Education Space in the Biz Center will be used mainly to display the works of new designers from Korea and abroad. Here’s the Seoul Design Foundation’s Kim Soo-jeong for more.



The exhibition hall in the Museum section will feature displays that represent modern integration of design, art, and science. The design museum on the second floor showcases creative designs and the fourth floor is occupied by the Imagination Experience Hall, where children can develop their creativity by playing design games.

DDP’s opening is celebrated with such highly anticipated exhibits as the Kansong간송 Culture Exhibit and Zaha Hadid’s 360°. In particular, the Kansong Culture Exhibit is a must-see event for the lovers of Korean cultural assets, as Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil’s private collection of Korea’s treasures bought back from Japan’s cultural pillagers is lauded as one of the most valuable collections of Korean cultural relics. This is the first time that articles from the Kansong Art Museum have been displayed in an outside facility. The exhibit features 59 precious relics and the story of Kansong’s life. Here’s curator Lee Jin-myeong이진명 of the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation.

You are seeing the story of Kansong’s life. There are his writings, handwritten notes, and literary works. There is a book about how he came to protect Korea’s national treasures and cultural relics from Japanese occupiers. He spent his own fortune to buy back the artifacts taken out to Japan. He thought the ties between our ancestors and the future generations would be severed if there were no cultural assets. As an attempt to keep Korea’s cultural heritage alive, he took over Boseong High School, where Korea’s national philosophy was taught during the 1940s. He wanted to keep the nation’s spirit alive through education. His legacy is invaluable in two areas – education and culture.

Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil started collecting Korea’s antiques in the 1930s. He saved renowned Joseon-era artist Jeong Seon’s painting from fire and retrieved a painting by another esteemed painter Shin Yun-bok from Japan. He found the works of notable female artist Shin Saimdang신사임당 and purchased a 13th-century Goryeo celadon vase from a Japanese merchant. But the most prized among the artifacts displayed at DDP is Hunminjeongeum훈민정음, a primer for teaching Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. It is also Korea’s National Treasure No. 70 and a UNESCO Memory of the World. Here’s curator Lee Jin-myeong of the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation again.

This is Hunminjeongeum’s Haerye해례 edition, which explains the principles behind the creation of Hangeul. Why is this edition important? Not just because there is only one copy. Historical records show that this edition was printed and distributed to court officials, but no copies of it were found until the 1940s. That was when Japan’s effort to wipe out the Korean language was at its worst. If the Haerye edition was not found, the Japanese colonial government would have claimed that the Korean alphabet is just a copy of the Mongolian language or that it was made by mimicking the shadows cast against the bathroom wall, and would have forced all Koreans to speak and write only Japanese. When the existence of this edition was revealed, Kansong spent a fortune to buy it. It is like a detailed manual for the Korean alphabet, which includes the reasons Hangeul was created and which voice organ inspired which letter.

Without the relentless efforts by Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil to save Korea’s cultural relics, we would never have had this opportunity to appreciate the full extent of our cultural heritage. The Kansong Art Museum was opened for public viewing only twice a year, for about two weeks at a time. So, the museum would be packed with visitors and it was hard to savor the treasures. But now that the Kansong Culture Exhibition is held at DDP for an extended showing, people will be able to see some 2,000 treasured pieces from Kansong’s private collection for the next three years.

The Dongdaemun Stadium which used to stand here was the site of many national sports competitions and high school baseball championship games in the 1970s and 80s. So it’s quite appropriate to host the Sports Design Exhibition under the theme “Science, human, fashion, and victory.” The exhibition features 78 sports items from the heyday of the Dongdaemun Stadium, 43 personal possessions of sports stars, such as the shoes worn by soccer star Hwang Sun-hong, speed skating champion Lee Sang-hwa’s skates and uniform, and Major League Baseball pitcher Park Chan-ho’s personal belongings, as well as 168 items from Design Museum London. Here’s resident scholar Yoo Joo-hee of DDP’s Design Museum to tell us more.

The Sports Design Exhibition is a special event celebrating the opening of DDP. It shows the relationship between sports and design. There are three main sections - the first one represents the sky, earth, and the seas, the second section showcases designs for victory, and the third section displays the collaborative works of sports stars and designers.

Another main attraction of DDP is Design Dule-gil둘레길, which is a gently curving incline connecting the design exhibition hall on the basement floor and the Design Museum on the fourth floor. A separate set of winding staircases links the two places outside of Dule-gil. When you stand at the top of the stairs, it feels like you’re looking out at an unknown world. Here’s the Seoul Design Foundation’s Kim Soo-jeong for more.

Dule-gil is 533 meters long. It winds up in a gentle slope around the design exhibition hall. Designer chairs are placed along the path to serve as a rest area.

Placed along Dule-gil are contemporary furniture pieces designed by famous Korean and foreign designers. Visitors can see and appreciate the graceful lines and modern simplicity of notable designs. Among them are Zaha Hadid’s artworks such as the stainless steel chairs named “Z-Chair,” marble tables from her mercuric table collection, and Avia and Aria lamps illuminated by crystal flex lights.



I feel rather out of place, as if an ordinary person like me would not be admitted to a place with such beautiful objects. Anyway, I’m excited to be having this new experience. The chair is cozy and inviting, and I feel like I’ve become a model or something.

Half of the rooftop is covered in grass, bringing the park up to the building to create a new landscape.

I’m about to walk up the outside staircase. The whole place is shocking, a design that we’ve never seen before. Each building and each section is unique. It’s a magnificent building, so I hope people take interest in DDP just like they had loved Dongdaemun Stadium.

Dongdaemun has been transformed from a late-night shopping town to a multipurpose cultural hub. The futuristic landmark is waiting for visitors looking to experience a whole different dimension.