The darkest building on Earth: 'An angular black hole waiting to suck you in'

Sprayed with Vantablack Vbx2, a pavilion at the Winter Olympics in South Korea absorbs 99% of light. We talk to its British architect Asif Khan, who also invented the 'selfie-building'

The pistes of Pyeongchang may be blinding white with snow as the Winter Olympics kicks off in South Korea, but among the ice rinks and bobsleigh tracks stands something completely different: the darkest building on the planet. Lurking between the competition venues like an angular black hole, it looks like a portal to a parallel universe, waiting to suck unsuspecting ski fans into its vortex. But this is not the latest high-tech defence against North Korean attack. It's a temporary pavilion for car giant Hyundai, designed by British architect Asif Khan, using a material developed in Surrey.

Described as the world's largest continuous "nanostructure", the building has been sprayed with a coating of Vantablack Vbx2, a super-black material that absorbs 99% of the light that hits its surface, creating the illusion of a void.