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Trip ideas  /  5 days in Seoul  /  Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, Seoul
Cultural building · Seoul, Seoul

Dongdaemun Design Plaza

A stadium of 1925.A wall damaged in 1889.Remains found in 2007.A mushroom-like roof.

Photo: Eugene Lim, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The stadium

The site held the first modern stadium in Korea

Dongdaemun Stadium was the first modern stadium in Korea. It was built during the Japanese Colonial Period to celebrate the wedding of the Japanese Prince. From 1925 until its demolition in 2007, national sports and celebration events were held there.

The wall

An ancient fortress wall was damaged to make way for a trolley

An ancient fortress wall once protected Hanyang, the capital of Chosun. In 1889 the first damage was inflicted to make way for a trolley railway, and unsanctioned construction after the Korean War eroded what remained.

The design

Zaha Hadid won the competition with a Metonymic Landscape

The British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, winner of the 2004 Pritzker Prize, designed the plaza with the concept of Metonymic Landscape. Construction started in 2009, and it was officially inaugurated on 21 March 2014.

The remains

Historical remains were found when the stadium was dug up

When excavation and demolition of the stadium began in December 2007, various historical remains were found. In June 2009 the city of Seoul decided to preserve and exhibit them, and announced Dongdaemun History & Culture Park.

65,232 m2area of Dongdaemun History & Culture Park

The building

The main building is 280 meters long and shaped like a mushroom

The plaza has three underground levels and four above-ground levels, and its main building is 280 meters long. The exterior is a smooth, giant mushroom-like structure floating above ground level, made of concrete, aluminum, steel and stone.

Day 2, afternoon

It comes after Gwangjang Market. Then Naksan.

More stories from this trip idea

The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.

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