Pyeongchang, South Korea – Asif Khan’s Pavilion at this year’s Winter Olympics is coined as the darkest building on earth, yet there is something strangely enlightening about it. Commissioned by Hyundai as part of a global mobility initiative, the pavilion embodies the two extremes of the scale of our cosmos going from the vastness of the universe to the singular atom.
The London-based practice coated the 35 by 35-m structure in Vantablack VBx2, a matte black material which absorbs 99% of the light that hits its surface, immersing visitors into a void where all sense of direction, dimension and time is momentarily lost. Thousands of white lights that seem to float on the surface punctuate its 10-meter-high parabolic facades, simulating a view into outer space.
