Entertainment complex creates glass-fiber reinforced concrete panel illusion

Architecture studio MVRDV (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) has completed construction on The Imprint, a two-building addition to an entertainment complex in Seoul, South Korea. The new buildings house a nightclub and an indoor amusement park.

The windowless abstract structures use glass-fiber reinforced concrete panels to mirror the façades of surrounding buildings, which are “imprinted” as a relief pattern that appears to drape over the buildings.

“By placing, as it were, surrounding buildings into the facades of our buildings and in the central plaza, we connect The Imprint with the neighbors,” says Winy Maas, principal and co-founder of MVRDV. “This ensures coherence.”

To create the illusion, many of the more than 3,800 panels are unique and had to be created from individual molds. According to MVRDV, the construction required molds to be individually produced using MVRDV’s 3D modelling files from the design phase. Once installed, the panels were painted white or gold to emphasize the relief in the design.

The effect is impressive and blurs the lines between architecture and art.