Seoul Design
International Forum
서울디자인국제포럼

New Challenges in City Design to Post-COVID

At a time when the world is thinking about the form of cities to come after Corona, we need to think about how cities should be constructed from a more comprehensive perspective. In addition to the challenges triggered by the coronavirus, the problem of climate change, which must be approached from a particularly long-term perspective, is an area that cannot be prevented or treated, and is a topic that needs to be found through continuous problem-solving, dialogue, and discussion. How should we respond to the problem of climate change that all cities face in the future and must solve in the long term? We would like to discuss six issues on climate change to be announced at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

The Innovative City for the Next Generation(the MZ Generation): Advancing Towards Ultra Connectivity and the Real World

This forum is an inspiring time for myself as well. Until now, we carried out discussions under the theme of the types of spaces that can act as the main characters and about relevant humanizing activities. In this session, we will talk about the perspective where we are the protagonists. Do you happen to know this song? ‘I love to play all day. Come join me, all my friends’. Do you know what it is? Yes. It is Pororo. What would have happened if we had children in this space? They would have disappeared as soon as we started because they would have said ‘This is not fun. I’m bored’. When we think back on our childhood, children could play all day long wherever they were as long as they had three things. The three things are playground, toys and friends.

The Social Role of Architects

Presentation will be mainly divided into three topics: 1. Investigating potential of paper tube as structure - Paper is typically seen as something weak without its own strength. I will explain about how I started using paper tubes as architectural element, challenges I went through, and how something so seemingly weak can become something so strong and durable. 2. Architectural and Design Works - Architecture plays a vital role as part of our city. They in fact make up and define the city. I will explain some of the major architectural works, from small to large scale projects. I will also show a number of projects with timber structure. Timber is one of many materials from the nature, and is known to be very environmentally friendly (for example emits much less CO2 than concrete and steel).

Special Interview: Rico Quirindongo

As civil servants, our responsibility is to serve the needs of our cities, our citizens, and our diverse communities. To improve the value of our cities and lives of our citizens through design, we must start by listening to our communities, particularly marginalized communities of color, hear from our citizens what they need to be supported, how they can be uplifted, and how they have been underserved. That input and education needs to be institutionalized and iterative. With that data and interaction, city governments should use that information to inform and coordinate our infrastructure and capital investments, our placemaking efforts, and our policy decisions.

Exploring the concept of social problem-solving design and its value, and evolutionary direction

Societies around the world are increasingly facing more diversified and complicated problems (e.g.: social structure and policy, climate change, chronic infectious diseases, inequality, etc.). And recently, in addressing these social problems by developing an actionable solution through collaboration with stakeholders, “social innovation” is emerging as a useful concept, and the use of human-centered participatory design approach is emphasized as a practical methodology to execute this concept. Unlike the conventional supplier-centered innovation that involves a top-down approach, these concepts focus on a bottom-up approach that emphasizes social connectedness, and the role of design as an elaborate problem-solving tool is critical in implementing these concepts.

[Special Interview] Birgit Mager

Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for Korean students aspiring to become leaders in service design? If you would like to be a leader in service design, you should try to be a tree-shaped person. What is a tree-shaped person? You have to have deep roots and you have to have many branches. So the deep roots are the roots in design research. You need to have a good understanding on how to understand a complex system, how to visualize a complex system.