Good architecture (and that’s what is expected from a firm of MVRDV’s stature and repute) is usually supposed to be about crafting a spatial aura by providing a functionally and aesthetically integrated solution tailored perfectly for the project at hand, about honesty of material and integrity of form, and more recently about caring for your surrounding environment by not using energy or materials that would harm it in the long or short run; great elevations were supposed to be about harmonious aesthetics that, whether they blended in or stood out of their surrounds, whether they nodded at history or were self-consciously pre-occupied, spoke an artistic language one could relate to. Whether the overtly highlighted convolutions of a Zaha Hadid creation or the visual shockers conjured up by Frank Gehry, the buildings’ looks have been true to their own expressive individuality.

But, The Imprint seems to lead all these known parameters of good architecture to the edge of a precipice and leave there a cliff-hanger – a cultural question-mark of sorts!

The forms of the two buildings are the simplest – cuboids bathed in total stark white. The drama begins when one corner of one of the buildings, the nightclub, gets inundated in a dazzling shadow of pure gold! This corner houses the entrance to the building, which faces a step-down plaza which also gets swathed in gold spilling over from the building. And, it is said that people in planes landing at the nearby Incheon airport can actually see this gold spot in all its glory, a radiant welcome to the city of Seoul.

The next googly comes from the elevations of the structures, which are mere ‘imprints’ of the surrounding existing structures. Yes, the elevations of the surrounding buildings have been replicated on the surfaces of these two cuboids to ‘blend in with the surroundings’ and then given an undifferentiating coat of pure white to ensure the abortion of any pretence at individuality. Fibre glass reinforced concrete panels which were precast and assembled or cladded at site were employed to achieve this and the fact that the structures were ‘window-less’ surely seems to have helped!

Further shock value enhancement occurs at the entrances of the buildings which, using the same fibreglass reinforced concrete technology, have been sculpted to create ‘lifted curtain’ corners – complete with the visual effects of folded fabric – of the structures, which then accommodate the zingy entrances. The techni-colour lights that peep from and define each entrance could catch even a blind eye with their contrast to the stark white or sheet gold enveloping them.

In fact, the riotous entrance foyer to the night club – a glass media floor which lights up to the tune of music and mirror clad facets covering the ceiling and walls that reflect these disco lights to create a hot and happening cavern of an entrance – is the only aspect of the interiors available for scrutiny in the public domain. The interiors, perhaps quite run-of-the-mill set-ups of a night club and a theme park, seem to be deliberately excluded from any spotlight, letting the conversation dwell on only the exteriors, the evidently loud attention grabbers! Perhaps, the urban planner side of each of MVRDV’s design team (they are all qualified active urban planners as well as architects) has approached this project as a real life urban design experiment, a live lab for their ‘Why factory’ – the firm’s global think tank and research institute that delves into the development and visualisation of future cities.

So, is this design any pointer towards how future cities may look? Not sure, though this could definitely be one of the options as long as there continue to be emboldened designers. There are questions raised about the wisdom of having an entertainment hub at an unfrequented spot far out from the city, but those are hardly within the purview of the architect to answer. But one thing that is for sure is that, in an age where life is increasingly about being seen and heard and discussed in the omniscient public domain that is the www, the future of architecture is also most likely to come to rest in that realm. In the era ruled by the internet, to be eye-catching, head-turning, Instagram-able may well be one of the loftiest pursuable ideals of ‘good architecture’.

After all, it is the designers’ claim to have played with the idea of making architecture and art meet in the denouement of the design. Notice how the two buildings, in an effort to desperately blend in with the surroundings, become so self-defeatingly conspicuous? Aren’t they speaking for themselves? And, while the plain white aperture-less cuboids attract criticisms for lack of architectural merit, it can’t be ignored that they craft an exclusive spatial aura out of the available exterior volume of Paradise City! Not ‘good architecture’, you say??