DREAMING OF AN URBAN LOUNGE FOR DAILY LIFE: DDP DESIGN LAB
materials provided by
Seoul Design Foundation, DDP (unless otherwise ind
edited by
Kim Yeram
Beginning with the multipurpose lounge ‘D-Forest’, DDP Design Lab of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) has initiated changes in space to provide programmes to be enjoyed by citizens. It is an attempt to establish DDP as an ordinary place for people. With Choi Kyungran who directed this renovation project, and Sook Hee Chun who designed a citizen-friendly space as a part of the project, SPACE here looks into the objectives DDP Design Lab would like to achieve as a public space.
interview Choi Kyungran principal, Seoul Design Foundation, Sook Hee Chun principal, WISE ARCHITECTURE × Kim Yeram
Kim Yeram (Kim): Opened in March 2014, DDP is a large landmark designed in an atypical form, and has held various programmes. It has been seven years since this cultural space opened, and I would like to hear about how the Seoul Design Foundation has been using this place.
Choi Kyungran (Choi): At the beginning of the opening, as DDP designed by Zaha Hadid was oriented to be operated as a financially independent public model, it held many programmes that were in need
of borrowing the place. Fortunately, as those programmes received good responses, DDP became a popular attraction where 10 million people visit a year. By the 5th year of its opening, the foundation
began to plan an education-oriented long-term plan to approach citizens’ ordinary lives more closely. The media façade festival entitled ‘SEOUL LIGHT’, which utilized an approximately 200m-long exterior wall, and the first public design museum in Korea are all originated from these plans.
Kim: Recently, a lounge entitled ‘D-Forest’ was placed on the first floor of DDP Design Lab. In what ways did you wish this place would be used by people?
Choi: As the name suggests, DDP has the meaning of a plaza. The outer plaza was designed to preserve the site’s long history and revitalize the Dongdaemun area, and the foundation wanted to expand its directly-operated space to bring its functions and public character into the building. This is to make visitors tired of their hard daily lives relax here and experience various design contents. If DDP Design Lab becomes perceived as an inspiring space of contemplation, we think people will spontaneously be able to look around the entire building. In anticipation of such a scenario, we are transforming the second floor of the building into a place for networking for designers and design companies, and the third floor into a platform for experiencing universal design.
Kim: D-Forest is an open space dedicated to all people. What made you decide to design a space along the theme of a forest?
Sook Hee Chun (Chun): Originally, this place was designed as a library that is open round the clock, but it was not a particularly comfortable space in which visitors could spend long hours. D-Forest intended to solve this issue and to run the space according to its original purposes. Planned as a park in the city centre, DDP is designed with a low streamlined roof and stands like a three-dimensional park in the area of Dongdaemun. In this context, we naturally thought of the idea of placing a forest on the first floor. Considering that natural light does not enter the interior space, we adjusted the natural landscaping and formed an entire lounge from grass and tree-shaped sculptures reminiscent of a forest.
Kim: When creating a lounge within a space that already exists physically, what part did you pay particular attention?
Chun: The formative language of D-Forest originated in DDP’s atypical form. Planned using a parametric design method, this building is composed of triangles of various sizes and shapes. The A-shaped middle level of D-Forest is a bridge connecting the first and the second floors and also acts as a symbol of the building. This place, where D-Forest is located, is a large space of a scale often difficult to find in public architecture. The ceiling is high enough so that the second floor can also be left open, and the floors and walls are sloped at different angles. Ever since we undertook the project, I visited the site quite frequently and observed people, then I realised that many people stayed here for a while and left immediately. Also, in most cases, people stayed under the A-shaped bridge, which indicated that citizens tended to feel overwhelmed by the large space’s sense of being wide open. To solve this phenomenon, I envisaged creating another space inside the space, planting a media tree as if creating a rest area outside, and placing a bench to lean or lie down next to it. And under the bridge often frequented by local residents, a planterior space, which combines a bench, desk, and flower pot, was created.
ⓒPark Youngchae
Kim: There are media displays, which can deliver messages to people, attached to the many branches of the ‘Media Tree’ installed in several places. It looks as if a tree is turned upside down. What is the reason behind the form of this sculpture?
Chun: The Media Tree is a sculpture equipped with a media display to communicate with local citizens. In order to deliver messages within high-rise spaces, the medium’s height and angle should be able to adjust, so it was designed in a three-dimensional form. This triangular-pyramid-shaped sculpture is made in the form of four triangles combined, and it has the merit of being able to simultaneously deliver multiple messages to citizens in different locations. There was also an economical reason for pouring a solution of mineral and acrylic resin into the mould. This is because making moulds of the same size and shape saved time and money. Morphologically, the pointed trees in D-Forest are all sibling trees.
Kim: As I hear more about the space, I start to wonder what kind of programmes will be held here.
Choi: A programme that considers the formative beauty of the building and the variability of the interior space will be held. We think the classic concert held last October clearly shows the direction of the programme to be held here in the future. In collaboration with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, that event was organized in a way people can enjoy music such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Achille-Claude Debussy, and we believe it is the foundation’s role to provide a special experience in a nicely designed space. To perform this role well, we will work with various organizations to develop programmes that combine different genres.
Kim: Next to D-Forest, there is a select shop entitled ‘DDP Design Store’ where you can purchase design and craft products. What kind of functions does this space serve?
Choi: DDP Design Store mainly focuses on introducing lifestyle design products that can only be found in Seoul. This is to collect crafts that display the traditional culture of Seoul and highly utilized designs so that citizens can enjoy the beauty in their ordinary lives. In addition, the foundation is working with artists and designers representing Korean craft design to develop products, and is also seeking ways to create jobs suitable for young designers.
Kim: Due to the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19), the Dongdaemun area is running on empty more than ever before. Under these circumstances, what role do you think DDP should play as a public space?
Chun: From now on, I think that the coexistence of face-to-face and non-face-to-face spaces will be a firm requirement in an urban environment. DDP runs many different cultural programmes, in indoor spaces of various sizes, so it will serve as a good Urban Lounge for citizens in the COVID-19 situation. Recently, we are acquiring better methods of non-face-to-face communication advanced under the present climate of COVID-19. Therefore, we hope that D-Forest, which actively instituted a media display, could serve as a window connecting online and offline in the future.
Kim: The Seoul Design Foundation has made many attempts to establish DDP as a design hub dedicated to daily life. Could you tell us about your next plan to approach that goal?
Choi: We hope that design professionals and other domestic experts will collaborate to build a design ecosystem for the future, and that DDP will stand at the centre of it. To promote diversity in the design ecosystem, Seoul Design Foundation will be holding an exhibition with women design in March that covers design activities related to women, and also preparing an educational and exhibition programmes through the website that can be run online and offline. Moreover, we also plan to support the design industry and contribute to the economic revitalization of the Dongdaemun area, while ensuring the stability of the design biennale. As we repeat these trials multiple times, I think DDP could grow not only as a cradle of creativity in Korea, but as a mecca that leads design in Asia, and furthermore, as a global place for design business.
Choi Kyungran is a professor at the Graduate School of Techno Design at Kookmin University. Since 2018, she has been working as the principal of the Seoul Design Foundation. In 2011, she planned a Korean design exhibition for the first time at the Triennale di Milano Design Museum, and was awarded the Ordine della Stella d’Italia in recognition of her contribution to invigorating cultural exchange between Korea and Italy. She has also worked as a curator for the 2015 Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne in France, the general director in 2015 Gwangju Design Biennale and 2010 Seoul Design Fair, and the head of the committee of the World Design Policy Forum 2013.
Sook Hee Chun
Sook Hee Chun, received her Masters in Architecture from Princeton University in US after receiving a BS in Architecture from Ewha Womans University in Korea. She is a registered architect whose background includes such prestigious design firms as Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, New York and IROJE architects & planners, Seoul. After jointly establishing WISE ARCHITECTURE in 2008, she has focused on the extraordinary in architecture, structures made from of ordinary materials and the stuff of everyday life. WISE ARCHITECTURE has also participated in many architectural activities such as planning and executing public art projects, and received the Korean Young Architects Award in 2011. Sook Hee Chun won the Seoul City Architectural Prize with The Museum of War & Women Human Rights in 2012. She received the Korean Design Award Grand Prize with Dialogue in the Dark, Bukchon in 2015.
