Ewha Campus Complex (ECC)이화여대 ECC

About this place

Ewha Campus Complex (ECC) is the largest underground campus building at any Korean university, designed through an international invited competition by Dominique Perrault, the French architect behind the National Library of France, and completed in 2008. It won the Seoul Architecture Award the same year. Built by excavating what had been the campus running track, it reads from ground level as a gentle green hillside split open by a V-shaped valley; walking down the ramp between its glass walls, you pass six basement levels holding lecture halls and reading rooms, a concert hall, an arthouse cinema, a bookshop and cafes. The glass facade draws daylight far below grade, and an air gap between the earth and the outer walls, together with groundwater piped through the ceilings, is designed to cover 70 to 80 percent of its heating and cooling energy. An open-air plaza runs from Ewha's main gate down to the complex, and the glass walls are lit after dark.

Good to know

Address

52, Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (Ewha Womans University Campus)

Hours

Always open

The campus has no gates, so the plaza running from the main entrance down to the ECC, the V-shaped valley and the outdoor steps can be walked at any hour; after dark, when the glass walls are lit, is often held to be the best time to see the building. The interior is a working university facility, and neither Ewha nor the Seoul Tourism Organization nor the Korea Tourism Organization publishes visiting hours for it. Individual venues on the fourth basement level, among them a concert hall, an arthouse cinema and a bookshop, keep their own schedules and ticketing. The Ewha Welcome Center runs campus tours and a permanent exhibition year-round.

Sources

Confirmed 2 October 2026

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Photo spots nearby

• Hongdae20 min by transit