Prada Transformer

A pavilion, called Prada Transformer, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas for Italy's fashion house Prada, can be seen on the ground of the 16th-century Gyeonghui royal palace in Seoul, South Korea. The structure was designed to accommodate a series of events from March to July 2009.

The form of the Transformer is derived from a Tetrahedron and when rotated each side facilitates a different program. The programs include the Prada Waist down Exhibition, an art exhibit by a world renowned artist and a movie festival. The final closing event of the pavilion will entail a Prada fashion show for 500 guests.



In order to accommodate a range of different fashion, art and movie events in 2009, cranes had to rotate, and then flip the pavilion into 4 different façade and floor plate configurations.

Each of the four programs function on unique steel framed shapes including a hexagon, a cross, a rectangle and a circle. Thus, over the course of its existence, floors will become walls and walls will become ceiling.

‘The interesting thing about this building is the acknowledgement of the transformer as a dynamic organism, opposed to simply a static object, which arbitrarily fits each program. Prada transformer helps add an extra dimension regarding the treatment of this typology by allowing it to be moulded in real time, depending on the specific programs it intends to facilitate inside.‘
– rem koolhaas