Meta-Horizons: The Future Now exhibition by Zaha Hadid Architects in Seoul

Immersive technologies, participatory design and new manufacturing techniques are the attributes that the recent projects and research by Zaha Hadid Architects protagonists of "Meta-Horizons: The Future Now', the exhibition that the same architecture studio has produced in collaboration with the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul, Korea.
From 26 May, the museum, also designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and inaugurated in 2014, offers its public a new path of discovery through pioneering design, technological innovation and contemporary creativity. This is achieved through three thematic areas: Innovation, Imagination and Interaction, the exhibition offers viewers the keys to explore the work of four in-house research groups in the architecture studio, and the possibilities offered by the development of digital design tools, as well as the simultaneous work between virtual and physical environments.
The 'Innovation' section, as the subtitle 'process and research' explains, introduces visitors to projects that follow the most recent lines of research undertaken by the ZHA studio, such as robotic technologies or digital wood construction. Projects such as Striatus, the concrete bridge created using 3D printing, and the architectural platform developed to create customised modular houses, belong to this section.
The second section, "Imagination", based on the greater potential for design communication offered by digital tools and thus the potential to integrate the physical world with the virtual realm, showcases the initiatives that Zaha Hadid Architects has launched to design virtual worlds or the "Metaverse", such as "NFTism", a virtual gallery space that explores architecture and social interaction. Finally, the last section, "Interaction", explores the participatory opportunities developed through a cyber-physical reality, making use of mixed, augmented and virtual reality tools, led by the Virtual Reality (ZHVR) division of the architecture firm.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Title: 'Meta-Horizons: The Future Now'
Date: 26 May - 18 Sept 2022
Curated by Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: DDP Design Museum Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, South Korea www.ddp.or.kr

Captions

(02-05) courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects, photo by Kyungsub Shin
(01, 06-10) renders RAS+ZHA_Architecting the Metaverse_courtesy of RAS

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