The DDP has been designed as a cultural hub at the centre of one of the busiest and most historic districts of the city. It is a place for people of all ages; a catalyst for the instigation and exchange of ideas and a place for new technologies and media to be explored—presenting an ever- changing menu of exhibitions and events that feeds the cultural vitality of the city.
The DDP is an architectural landscape that revolves around the ancient city wall and newly discovered cultural artefacts which form the central element of the composition linking the park and plaza together. The fluid design encourages the greatest degree of interaction between the park and the people of Seoul. The new DDP park is a place for leisure, relaxation and refuge—a green oasis within the busy urban surroundings of Dongdaemun. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape that connects the city, park and architecture together. Voids and inflections in the park’s surface give visitors glimpses into the innovative world of design below, making the DDP an important link between the city’s contemporary culture, emerging nature and history. The DDP design is the very specific result of how the context, local culture, programmatic requirements and innovative engineering come together—allowing the architecture, city and landscape to seamlessly combine in both form and spatial experience.
The park is accessible to everyone, with folds and inflections in its surface that welcome and direct visitors through different levels of the interior. The design blurs the boundaries between architecture and urban landscape, solid and void, interior and exterior. It is an architectural landscape where concepts of spatial flow are made real – creating a whole new kind of civic space for the city.
The 86,574 square meter DDP comprises a design museum, library and educational facilities, whilst the 30,000 square meter park reinterprets the celebrated spatial concepts of traditional Korean garden design: layering, horizontality, blurring relationship between the interior and the exterior – with no single feature dominating the perspective. This approach is further informed by historic local painting traditions that depicting grand visions of the ever-changing aspects of nature.
We congratulate the client’s vision. The DDP design and construction sets many new high standards. DDP is the first public project in Korea to implement advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services that ensure the highest quality and cost controls. These include 3-dimensional Building Information Modelling (BIM) for construction management and engineering coordination, enabling the design process to adapt with the evolving client brief and integrate engineering requirements. These innovations have empowered the team building DDP to control the construction with much greater precision than conventional processes and improve efficiencies. These construction technologies make DDP one of Korea’s most innovative and technological advanced constructions and my gratitude to the city of Seoul is very deep.
DDP engages the community in a collective dialogue where many contributions and innovations feed into each other, allowing talents and ideas to flourish. In combination with the city’s exciting public cultural programs, DDP is an important investment in the education and inspiration of future generations; further developing Korea as a center of innovation.
Architect:
Zaha Hadid Architects
Design:
Zaha Hadid
Patrik Schumacher
Project Leader:
Eddie Can Chiu-Fai
Project Manager:
Craig Kiner
Charles Walker
Project Team:
Kaloyan Erevinov
Martin Self
Hooman Talebi
Carlos S. Martinez
Camiel Weijenberg
Florian Goscheff
Maaike Hawinkels
Aditya Chandra
Andy Chang
Arianna Russo
Ayat Fadaifard
Josias Hamid
Shuojiong Zhang
Natalie Koerner
Jae Yoon Lee
FedericoRossi
John Klein
Chikara Inamura
Alan Lu
Competition Team:
Kaloyan Erevinov
Paloma Gormley
Hee Seung Lee
Kelly Lee
Andres Madrid
Deniz Manisali
Kevin McClellan
Claus Voigtmann
Maurits Fennis
Consultants:
Structural Engineer:
ARUP M.E.P.F.
Services Engineer:
ARUP
Lighting Consultant:
ARUP
Acoustics Consultant:
ARUP
Landscape Architect:
Gross Max Facade
Consultant Group:
5F
Geometry Consultant:
Evolute
Quantity Surveyor:
Davis Langdon & Everest
Local Architects:
Samoo Architects
Local Consultants:
Structure:
Postech Mechanical
Samoo Mechanical Consulting (SMC)
Electrical and Telecom:
Samoo TEC
Facade:
M&C
Civil:
Saegil Engineering & Consulting
Landscape:
Dong Sim Won
Fire:
Korean Fire Protection