Architecture

Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Seoul, South Korea

Candidate image for Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul

Dongdaemun Design Plaza’s sweeping silver curves make a civic building feel more like a continuous landscape than a stack of rooms. Its form marks a deliberate redesign of the former stadium site, linking contemporary architecture with the district’s long association with making and trade.

Guide preview

There is no single front face to Dongdaemun Design Plaza: its silver surface folds around the site in a continuous, flowing shape. Walk along its edge and the building keeps changing—curved wall, roof, passage—making architecture feel less like a box and more like terrain.

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Quick facts

  • Zaha Hadid Architects won the design competition in 2007.
  • The complex opened on March 21, 2014.
  • It occupies the former Dongdaemun Stadium site.

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