What’s going on with MVRDV’s new buildings in Seoul?

It’s hard to know where to start when describing MVRDV’s new pair of buildings on the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea. Maybe it’s the windowless facades that look as if they’re peeling off their frame.

Ossip van Duivenbode via Dezeen

Or the technicolor entrance that could have been lifted from a 1999 music video.

Ossip van Duivenbode via Dezeen

Or the splash of gold that cuts across half of one of the buildings. And that’s maybe the most conventional thing about the new buildings.

Ossip van Duivenbode via Dezeen

The Dutch architecture firm, known for its wild ideas, designed the two buildings as part of an amusement park-meets-nightclub that sits on the outskirts of the city near the airport, and they’re both fever dream pieces of architecture. Called The Imprint, the entertainment complex is indeed an entertaining vision.

MVRDV crafted the opaque buildings to reflect their surroundings by imprinting concrete with the design of the neighboring buildings. The result is an unnerving design that looks like a trompe l’oeil.

Ossip van Duivenbode via Dezeen

MVRDV says The Imprint is meant to blur the lines between art and architecture, and depending on your definition of art that’s probably a fair statement. “What, then, is the difference between architecture an art?” MVRDV principle Winy Maas told Dezeen. “The project plays with that and I think that abstraction is part of it, but it has to surprise, seduce and it has to calm down.”

Via: Dezeen