Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. Dutch design practice MVRDV has completed a white and gold entertainment complex, ‘The Imprint’, next to South Korea’s Incheon Airport, with facades that blend in elements from neighbouring buildings. MVRDV is a Rotterdam-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993. The two buildings it created at Inchon contain an indoor theme park and a nightclub. With windows unnecessary to provide daylight for the users of either facility, the buildings’ facades provided the perfect blank canvas for MVRDV’s creativity. It decided to include references to the adjacent Paradise City, a hotel complex serving South Korea’s largest airport. This connected the facades of The Imprint with its neighbours, integrating them as a collection, rather than a set of completely unrelated structures. Glass-fibre reinforced concrete was cast in moulds, which were created by 3D modeling. The moulds incorporated windows, doorways and other features of the Paradise City’s buildings. Painted in white, there are also large and arresting splashes of gold, designed to seize the attention of passengers, bathing them in warm and welcoming ‘sunshine’ as they arrive at Inchon airport. Dramatic references include an entrance into the golden facade, which appears like a raised theatre curtain and draws visitors into a walkway leading through the building. The walkway has a glass floor made from multimedia screens, and these are reflected by the curved mirrored ceilings above. MVRDV is led by principals Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries and the firm’s acronym is a combination of their surname initials. The practice operates globally and has completed diverse projects across Europe, Asia and the United States. Its imaginative approach has courted controversy and even anger in the past. Designs for an apartment complex in Seoul’s redeveloped Yongsan business district appeared to reflect the World Trade Centre’s final moments after the 9/11 attack. Since the completion of ‘The Imprint’, the firm recently revealed plans for a mirrored office block in southern Germany and it is also designing a rocking viewing platform on the Dutch coast. See more here.
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