A new Zaha Hadid exhibition opens in the South Korean capital

Zaha Hadid Architects has opened a new gallery at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul, South Korea.

Design Features

Called Meta-Horizons: The Future Now, the new exhibit acts as a catalyst that brings together architecture, media and new technologies to stimulate and share ideas.

The exhibition opened on May 26 and will run until September 18, 2022 at the DDP in Seoul.

The exhibition is part of a long-term collaboration between Zaha Hadid Architects and Dongdaemun Design Plaza, ZHA designed the building itself in 2014.

Since its opening in 2014, DDP has become a cultural center and meeting place in the center of Seoul’s Dongdaemun District.

Inaugurated at DDP’s New Design Museum, the new exhibition complements DDP’s commitment to showcasing groundbreaking design,

technological innovation and contemporary creativity.

The areas are titled Innovation, Imagination, and Interaction – all of which provide a framework for exploring the work of the four research teams

(ZHA: Computation and Design, ZH CODE), Virtual Reality (ZHVR), Analytics and Insights (ZH A+I), and Operations for Social Interaction (ZHA Social).

The exhibition delves into ZHA’s work across multiple domains, from digital technology to artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

It summarizes ZHA’s recent designs, and focuses on process and research that includes immersive technologies,

participatory design, and new manufacturing techniques.

Furthermore, the exhibition explains the practice’s collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to how practice develops digital design tools,

creating opportunities when working simultaneously between virtual and physical environments.

ZHA is known for its “comprehensive understanding of construction materials and methods,

logistics strategies and end-user case studies” in its projects.

Building on this approach, the company is also actively developing models, tools,

and dynamic simulations that allow for increased complexity and a range of inputs to include in their design solutions.

The epidemic is accelerating the trend towards a virtualization of life and society

Coupled with historical and past knowledge is the ability to analyze the present and identify design tools for the future.”

RAS + ZHA Metaverse Architecture:

Another aspect of the exhibition is the new collaboration between ZHA and technology-driven art and design studio Refik Anadol Studio (RAS).

Founder Refik Anadol previously created a multimedia installation “Seoul Light: Seoul Haemong” at DDP in 2019.

In alignment with ZHA’s vision of creating transformative cultural spaces in sync with their surroundings,

in this exhibition RAS unveils its most innovative experiments with architectural data in both the physical world and metaverse.

RAS also used multi-model AI algorithms to analyze the image and text data collected and generated by ZHA.

These algorithms resulted in comprehensive data sets that represent the body of practice.

Upon entering one of the rooms, visitors will experience this artwork within an immersive room,

showcasing the experimental perspective of the metaverse that will come by integrating machine learning,

artificial intelligence, and ZHA repertoire.

The DDP Seoul Light Festival has been a turning point for public artworks in the private studio,

and in addition to their project in the digital art world of East Asia,

they have developed a new vision and direction for their public artwork during the pandemic and decided to focus on the healing qualities of art,

particularly when they are collectively experienced either in the physical or virtual space”.

This project for DDP also bears the traces of this vision but more importantly,

they are collaborating for the first time with a leading architectural studio.

Innovation: process and research

The first area, titled Innovation: Process and Research,

focuses on ZHA’s collaboration across various disciplines that draws on a research-based approach towards the design process and physical models.

And innovations in the built environment are being driven by the ZHA process and technologies harnessing research in a more strategic and sustainable way.

This area also presents ZHA’s three ongoing research leads: robotic technologies,

foldable engineering, and digital timber construction.

ZHA’s expertise in participatory architecture and design enables the practice to deliver energy-efficient,

tailored solutions for individual users.

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