ZHA Inaugurates Design Museum in Seoul with Meta-Technology Exhibition

Written by Dima Stouhi
Published on May 30, 2022

Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) has collaborated with Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) for the 'Meta-Horizons: The Future Now' exhibition in Seoul, Korea. Designed by ZHA to promote the instigation and exchange of new ideas and to showcase innovative technologies and media, the inaugural exhibition of DDP’s new Design Museum explores ZHA’s work across multiple fields, from digital technology to artificial intelligence and virtual reality, featuring the firm's recent designs, process, and research that incorporates immersive technologies and new fabrication techniques. The exhibition will be on display from 26 May - 18 September 2022.

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DDP opened in 2014 and has become a cultural hub and meeting place at the center of the Dongdaemun district in Seoul. The exhibition details the practice’s collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach of developing digital design tools, and the opportunities made possible when working simultaneously between virtual and physical environments. Three zones within the exhibition: Innovation, Imagination, and Interaction, will be providing visitors with a framework for exploring the work of ZHA’s four research teams: Computation & Design (ZH CODE); Virtual Reality (ZHVR); Analytics & Insights (ZH A+I); and Social Interaction Processes (ZHA Social).

ZHA Inaugurates Design Museum in Seoul with Meta-Technology Exhibition - Image 8 of 15 — ZHA_RAS_Architecting the Metaverse. Image © Kyungsub Shin

The INNOVATION: Process & Research zone highlights innovations in the built environment that are driven by ZHA’s process and research. This introductory section of the exhibition focuses on collaborations across different disciplines which rely on a research-based approaches towards the design process and physical prototyping. Projects in this zone include the recently completed Striatus, a 3D-printed concrete bridge, and an architectural platform used to create customized modular homes.

The IMAGINATION: Design & Virtual zone highlights the imagination and communication of design vision and how it has increased the possibilities of working between the physical and digital realms. In this zone, ZHA’s recent ventures into designing virtual worlds or the Metaverse such as the cyber urban incubator ‘Liberland’ and ‘NFTism’, a virtual gallery space that explores architecture and social interaction, are displayed.

The INTERACTION: Technologies & Collaboration zone showcases the ongoing development of technologies across all stages of design, enhancing the seamless user experience across the cyber physical, mixed reality, augmented and virtual reality. In this zone, the projects presented explore new possibilities for interaction developed by ZHVR including 'Project Correl 1.0', a collaborative experiment in multi-presence virtual reality illustrating the development of complex assemblies inside virtual space, as well as the 'LOOP' mixed-reality experience 'NEW WORLDS' which is a design simulation created by ZHVR for product testing and design development.

ZHA Inaugurates Design Museum in Seoul with Meta-Technology Exhibition - Image 11 of 15 — ZHA_RAS_Architecting the Metaverse. Image © Kyungsub Shin

In addition, the exhibition marks the debut of RAS + ZHA: 'Architecting the Metaverse', a collaboration between ZHA and Refik Anadol Studio (RAS), intersecting architecture, art, technology, and artificial intelligence. For this project, multi-model AI algorithms have been used to analyze image and script data compiled and composed by ZHA. These algorithms result in comprehensive datasets that represent the practice’s portfolio of works. Visitors will experience this artwork within an immersive room, showcasing the experimental perspective of the metaverse to come.