Pictures: Whimsical Weather

The title of this blogpost says it all. There has been really capricious weather lately. A streak of lightning would burst into the sky with tempestuous rainfall only to be suddenly replaced by marvelous sunshine and a gentle breeze. Here are some pictures from the past two weeks! Hope you enjoy :)

 Shaky, but it was this picture that best captured the speed of the rainfall!

A slightly eerie air about the apartment blocks

Behind the classrooms - the statues say hello!

Young summer leaves intact after the rain 

A very light burgundy brown among the greens...wait, hair dye, anyone? :P

Now a much sunnier collection - !

If you could really fall in love with a color...

The artworks under the sunshine - an entirely different scene from the previous picture

The school's old library - red bricks and red leaves

The Korean national flower - Moogoonghwa (Rose of Sharon) 

See you again in a week or two! :)

"Dream, Design, Play": Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Last week, I FINALLY got the chance to see the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) - an incredible multipurpose cultural complex officially inaugurated on the 21st of March 2014. Built by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, it is hoped to become the hub of the Dongdaemun district of traditional markets and shopping centers. 

The exterior seemed perfectly seamless to me; as I crossed the Miraero Bridge, the curves simply flowed along walls and ceilings...Wait, it would actually be a bit inappropriate to distinguish between the two...because you can't. A surface here would merge with another there, and when I wandered around the plaza's grounds, it became a bit difficult to figure out how far a distance I had come, for the lines poured into the center, and then out to the edges again. But this is not to say that it was 'dizzying' or 'confusing' by any means. Perhaps the pleasant weather helped, but I felt completely at peace as I walked; the dusty grey of the concrete felt smooth under my fingertips and the soft glow of the aluminum panels gave off a luminescence calming and soothing. 

The soft glow of the aluminum panels give off a luminescence calming and soothing

Every step was amazement itself. There were hardly any straight lines and right angles. I had never seen acute and obtuse angles just dominate the design of a building before. What was really remarkable, I thought, was a wisp of cool breeze followed me everywhere I went. At an intersection pictured below, I could have forgotten that it was summer - was it the last bit of spring lingering under the ripping arch? 

A wisp of cool breeze - quite improbable, but maybe...

the last bit of spring lingering under the ripping arch?!

I particularly loved the Miraero Bridge I mentioned above. An entrance (there are many) into the plaza led to the bridge at the end of which you could enter the interior of the structure. Everywhere I went, I noticed concrete was used to set the base, but the material at one location reflected an intensity unlike any other. When I crossed the bridge, the trusses seemed almost off-white, a sandy shade of beige. I loved it.  

Miraero Bridge - to the future-!

Sadly, I couldn't spend a lot more time after taking a walk around the open grounds. I did take a look inside, of course, and it was wonderful to go around the 533 meters' spiral pathway (Design Pathway) that led me to fascinating exhibition halls. Next time I visit DDP, I'll focus more on the interior of the structure :)

After I came back home, I looked up the design of the plaza in greater detail. I was surprised it had a number of very important environmentally-friendly features - a geothermal system, an insulating glass fiber reinforced gypson board, a 3-dimensional solar power system, a rainwater harvesting system. I was surprised because the entire time I was there, I never saw any information about the green aspects of this structure. Whereas I saw many screens featuring Zaha Hadid and beautiful shots of the plaza, such features were not mentioned, not even in the detailed promotional leaflet. Did the operators believe the architectural achievements and the social prospects should be the focus? Or maybe, they thought that people would not be as interested in such information? Whatever the reason, I'm glad that I got to know about the environmentally-conscious sides in the end. Add that to my agenda the next time I visit - check out the green features, even if they're hard to find!