This is the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park. I visited a few days after it opened to the public and it had tha new smell of concrete and the steel was pristine. The structure itself is imposing and it has been controversial. It was designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure has been praised as an architectural marvel as well as an "urban pimple" in the Korean press. I found it beautiful and daring yet not endearing. It defines a certain distance from the viewer a certain objetivity that at the same time allures. It works because it is pleasing and disturbing, functional and yet unusual. It creates a space and allows for a multitude of spaces to inhabit within. It emerges in a way that only a space designed for design would emerge.
