DAY NINE - SEOUL

The day started off by taking the metro to the beautiful architectural building of Zaha Hadid called the Dongdaemoon Design Plaza, which means “big inside gate.” The overall architecture of the building is a new idea of modernism with little to no color. Her designs always involve some sort of abstract curve that is designed to help users move throughout the space in a certain path pattern. Something that was interesting about this particular design is that there was this hallway that had a subtle slope to it that went in a circle all the way up to the top floor. It made you maneuver around different areas throughout that got you to the top of the space. It was so great to see her design because ever since I learned about her in class, she has been an inspiration to me.

After the museum, we moved across the street underground to buildings where we had some free time to explore the area. Around here, there were abundance of different stores that we could shop at or explore the DDP more. This was a place where we had lunch which I had this amazing spicy ramen - one of my favorite meals.

One of the major last stops for the day was visiting an all girls college campus, Ewha Women’s University where we walked around to different buildings to see what it is like. The concept of the space was using underground elements to build the campus and it seemed to be hidden from above. It was an interesting design but great use of resources.

For the rest of the day we had time to explore the Myungdong Shopping District which is known to be one of the more popular areas of Seoul. Here we had dinner at a local restaurant and moved over to watch this performance called “NANTA” which is a burlesque performing funny events in wacky kitchens and acrobatics. It was the best time you could have with lots of laughter and smiles.

The trip was overall such an amazing experience! Thank you to everyone for making it so fun.