Dutch architecture firm MVRDV has unveiled designs for an entertainment and retail plaza, dubbed Paradise City, near Incheon International Airport in Seoul.
Covering more than 100,000 sqft (9290 sqm), the plaza is the centerpiece of a master plan for a tourist-hub complex including a hotel and casino, nightclub, spa, shops, a food court and galleries.
MVRDV’s plaza comprises two buildings: the oblong nightclub and the curving “sandbox”. The nightclub building also includes a water club and a sky garden, while the other building has retail spaces and connects to the casino.
Conceived in collaboration with Seoul-based Gansam Architects & Partners, which created the wider master plan, and VS-A, a French firm specialising in facade engineering, the plaza has simple concrete structures with unusual entrances: openings that create the appearance of parts of the buildings being lifted – described by the designers as “a more fluid aesthetic”.
A feature is a bright gold “spot” that drapes the nightclub and part of the plaza grounds, acting as a beacon to visitors flying into the airport, a 10-minute walk away. MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas says the spot marks the complex’s entrance “like a sunbeam, making its presence known even from the air and the landing planes”.
Construction on Paradise City is scheduled to start in September with the target of being open in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics, being held in Pyeongchang county.
