Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)

The Dongdaemun Design Plaza is Zaha Hadid's silver spaceship — a 86,574-square-metre cultural complex with no straight lines, no right angles, and a flowing neo-futuristic exterior that looks like liquid metal frozen in the process of pouring. Completed in 2014 at a cost of $450 million, it's the largest 3D amorphous structure in the world and the building that established Seoul as a city willing to bet on architecture as spectacle.

The exterior is covered in 45,133 aluminium panels, each individually curved, that create a continuous surface flowing from the park-like roof (which you can walk on) down to the street-level plazas. At night, the LED lighting embedded in the facade creates a soft glow that makes the building look like a landed spacecraft, and the 24-hour design market (DDP is open round the clock) adds a nocturnal energy that most cultural institutions lack. The night market on the outdoor plaza — a rotating collection of food stalls, craft vendors, and K-culture merchandise — draws a younger crowd that uses the building as a backdrop for Instagram photos.

Inside, the exhibition spaces host rotating design, fashion, and technology shows, and the DDP has become the primary venue for Seoul Fashion Week and major product launches. The Design Lab and Design Museum on the lower levels showcase Korean industrial and graphic design. But the real attraction is the building itself — Hadid's last major completed work before her death in 2016, and arguably the most architecturally significant building in Seoul.