Prada gets Seoul: Flexible event venue pops up, rolls

Seoul – Prada has unveiled the Transformer, an intriguing moveable structure that will accommodate the high fashion brand’s cultural, artistic and fashion events this spring and summer in the South Korean capital. The tetrahedron-like theatre space, composed of four faces of different shapes, will be located next to the 17th-century Kyunghee Palace from March to July 2009.

The Prada Transformer was developed in collaboration with architect Rem Koolhaas and Rotterdam-based thinktank Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The project was led by Koolhaas and fellow OMA partner Ellen van Loon, with associates Kunlé Adeyemi and Chris van Duijn, and design architect Alexander Reichert.

The Transformer, with its four different façades and floor-plate configurations, can be rotated on each side depending on the event, so that floors become walls and walls become the ceiling. Each of the four programmes – fashion exhibition, art exhibition, cinema and other special events – will function on unique steel-framed shapes: a hexagon, a cross, a rectangle and a circle. The Prada Transformer will be built with the support of LG Electronics, which also makes Prada’s mobile phone; car manufacturer Hyundai; and real estate developer Red Resource, whose international projects include the City of Irvine in California, in collaboration with the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, the governing body of French fashion.