DDP Controversy and the Dilemma of H-Sang Seung's "Landscript

Abstract

Zaha Hadid's design of the DDP (2007-13) in Seoul has been criticized for its seeming disinterest in the site's sense of place. The most consistent critic against the design is H-Sang Seung (b. 1952), one of the participants in the 2007 competition for the project. For Seung, careful consideration of "the record and story of our lives. written on the land," which was to be theorized under the name "landscript" (2009), should have been the starting point of the present DDP. Though very cogent, however, his opinion cannot but encounter a dilemma in the fact that the futuristic DDP will also be established as one layer of the "landscript" on the site. In addition, his "landscript" theory, partly supported by Heidegger's concept of place, could be criticized based on criticism of Heidegger. For example, Neil Leach (1998)-after Jean-Francois Lyotard (1987)-sensed "a potential violence" and "the logic of exclusion" in the Heideggerian place. In the contemporary context of "the heterogeneous, open cosmopolis," Leach argues, we should pursue "cosmopolitan architectures" transcending "the rigid constraints of the genius loci." On the basis of Leach's argument, this paper aims for a critical re-reading of Seung's "landscript," revealing his dilemma in the DDP controversy.