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The Seoul Metropolitan Government has recently launched a plan to establish the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park with the aim of reviving the historical significance of the Dongdaemun Gate and its adjacent area (on the former site of the Dongdaemun Sports Complex consisting of soccer and baseball fields), promoting the design industry, which is regarded as a key factor for the city’s industrial competitiveness, over the coming years, and providing its citizens with
a public space for rest and refreshment. The plan was officially launched on April 28, 2009, with certain facilities east of the Seoul Seonggwak (Restored Castle Walls) and Igansumun Sluice Gate becoming opened to the public on October 27, 2009.
This has led to this area fast becoming a major attraction among the citizens of Seoul. The newly opened facilities include two exhibition halls displaying archaeological features discovered at the Dongdaemun Sports Complex Site, restored relics of the Seoul Seonggwak (Restored Castle Walls) and the Igansumun Sluice Gate, the Dongdaemun History Museum displaying a collection of artifacts discovered at the site, the Dongdaemun Stadium Memorial Museum guiding visitors through the history of the Dongdaemun Sports Complex, and the Design Gallery and Event Hall in which design-focused exhibitions and events are held all year round.
Planned to be included within the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park and to open at the end of 2011, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza is expected to become an important part of the infrastructure constructed to offer exclusive support for the design industry. The designs of the park are based on the Metonymic Landscape, devised by the British architectural designer Zaha Hadid, who won the international design competition held for the project in August 2007.
Zaha Hadid is an internationally renowned architect and winner of many international competitions and awards, a notable example being the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture.
Zaha Hadid’s Metonymic Landscape, which has drawn worldwide attention, with its attractively informal and asymmetric designs consists of curves and slanting lines combined with alien images. This aesthetic is expected to perfectly harmonize the elements of urban design, landscape and architecture of Seoul’s history, culture, environment and economy, thus making the Dongdaemun Design Plaza a new landmark.
The DDP will be a complex of modern facilities housed in a building (85,368 ㎡, 4 aboveground and 3 underground floors) that includes two multi-purpose convention halls, a design exhibition hall, design museum, design DIY center, future design center, information education center, design resource center and digital archive. The Plaza is expected to serve as a venue for a great variety of design-related international events, including exhibitions and conferences, efforts for the establishment of design networks and programs to support the design industry and individual designers. It will become a global center for commercialization of creative ideas and associated marketing efforts.
Information about the newest design trends from across the world will be collected here before being redistributed. The DDP will grow into a truly global hub for design-related knowledge, trends and marketing.
The Dongdaemun History & Culture Park occupies a land area of 65,967 ㎡ and will contain the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which is expected to be a world’s leading design center. The park will contain restored archaeological remains of the Seoul Seonggwak (Restored Castle Walls) that had to be destroyed and buried due to the construction of the Gyeongseong Stadium during the Japanese Colonial Period. Included on the site also will be the Igansumun Sluice Gate and the Hadogam Site. There will also be a public space in the park for the rest and refreshment of citizens. The Dongdaemun History & Culture Park will offer visitors a valuable and special opportunity to relish the cultural legacy of the site and to engage in various creative activities in an environment where tradition harmoniously coexists with the modern.
- A combination between a public park and plaza : conceived from a traditional Korean house enclosed by two tracts of ground -- front courtyard and backyard - that form the key spaces for household daily activities.
- Roof gardens : a combination of a building and a park via roof gardens.
- Linkage between buildings and outer spaces : the landscapes between buildings are linked with the flow of human traffic.
- Planting trees, shrubs and flowers according to their size and function of space : creation of comfortable resting areas that contain trees and flowers that have been chosen in relation to the scale of the manmade structures and people about them.
- Seoul Seonggwak (Restored Castle Walls): The fortress was first built in 1396 by mobilizing builders from all eight provinces that existed during the Joseon Dynasty. It was rebuilt in 1422, and the walls were remade as stone structures. The wall excavated at the fortress’ Dongdaemun section retains signs of the different building techniques used during the reigns of King Taejong, Sejong and Seongjong.
- Chiseoug (Wall Defense Terrace) : this structure protrudes from the main wall and was used to coordinate attacks against approaching enemy forces.
- Hadogam Site: Hadogam was a military camp under the Hullyeon Dogam (Military Training Command), which was established in 1594 to defend the capital and train royal guards and provincial armies.
- Igansumun Sluice Gate : this structure built under the fortress wall offered a channel for directing water from the Namsan area out of the city.
A three-story building standing south of the DDP site, the DDP Information Center was opened to the public on April 28, 2009, and will remain open until the end of 2011, the projected completion date for the DDP. The center provides visitors with information regarding the DDP via exhibitions and operates an observatory allowing citizens a detailed view of the project site. There are various interactive, hands on exhibitions in the center helping visitors better understand the present and future of the DDP. Visitors are also offered expert explanations and detailed comments by experienced docents. All the exhibition signs and information leaflets are offered in four languages, Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese.
- Opening Hours : 10:00-19:00 (Mon to Sun) /
Closed on New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year’s Day (Seol) and the Harvest Moon Holiday (Chuseok). - Admission Fee : free
- Group Admission : reservations essential for a group of twenty or over.
- Information : 02-2266-7330~1
