Seoul Design
International Forum
서울디자인국제포럼

Generative Social Distance Design: The Optimisation of Building Layouts for COVID-19

Social Distancing Lab Project I would like to talk about the ‘Social Distance Research Institute’ project, which ended about three months ago. Former Senator Ted. Kennedy said, “What divides us pales in comparison to what unites us.” As I worked on a technical research project centered on isolating people during an epidemic, I personally hoped that the shared experience could revitalize the community and rekindle a sense of social cohesion. What is social distancing and how does it affect transmission? The prevailing view of the modern scientific community is that maintaining human-to-human distance is an important factor in reducing the rate of respiratory cross-contamination. The principle of air transmission is that droplets are emitted when people talk to each other or cough, and if people who are within 2 meters of each other inhale it, it is easy to be directly infected with the virus. Therefore, reducing the distance between people increases the risk of infection, and almost all countries have been able to directly reduce the number of deaths by introducing social distancing measures. These statistical data indicate that social distancing measures were effective in reducing the number of confirmed deaths, which is a result showing that social distancing is a key response to the spread of COVID-19. COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the global economy, not just on human life.

The Process and Outcomes of the COVID-19 Design Challenge

Insights and Applications for the Post-Corona Era; The start of a design challenge related to COVID-19 Design has great power. Design has the power to motivate people to do many things, such as taking action, creating products and services that make life simple and rich, and deriving a whole new experience. Designers basically carry out design work assigned to their organizations, but in addition to these daily tasks, they have the power to solve the world's biggest problems. I expressed these ideas in the keynote speech last August at the Design for America Summit, where I urged designers to solve the biggest challenges facing the international community through a bold approach. And it wasn't long before the COVID-19 virus outbreak, which had effects worldwide. I thought that there must be a solution that designers can bring to meet the huge challenge of the Corona crisis. After discussing how we should contribute to this challenge by making a difference together with like-minded people like World Design Organization’s Srini Srinivasan and Rebecca Breuer and Liz Gerber of Design for America, we decided to launch the COVID-19 Design Challenge and bring the designer community together. Our starting point was to reach out to designers in each community and ask them what challenges they might face with COVID-19. Altogether, there were over 180 challenges, and they were recorded on Post-it notes and categorized according to themes. We grouped the related ones together and marked them on the priority grid in order of high impact and urgency, considering whether it is a task we need to address, what impact it will have, and whether it can affect urgency and resolution.

Smart Home's Directions in Untact Society

Due to the contagiousness of the COVID-19 virus, the number of infected patients is increasing, and the resulting decline in social interactions is leading to a global economic crisis. Social distancing means that face-to-face contact with others is considered dangerous, and recommends staying at home as much as possible and refraining from outside activities such as going to work, eating out and shopping. The crisis of COVID-19, which is ongoing, is urging the transition to a non-face-to-face culture and society. Housing in the non-face-to-face society needs to be redefined with a new concept and function. Nowadays, when we think that a smart home can offer the possibility of an alternative, we understand it as a house that can provide convenience in our lives based on cutting-edge information and communication technology. However, this definition of a smart home is rather clichéd and indistinct, and I don't think it accurately describes the essence of a smart home. In the 1990s, there was already an intelligent home, and in the 2000s, the term ubiquitous home was used. In the 2010s, the smart home appeared, and they are all defined and used with almost the same concept. If the “homes” mentioned above have passed without becoming reality, can a smart home, which is being developed with the same concept, be an alternative in this era?

Impact Business Design for Social Ventures

Partner of starting social ventures, Sopoong When we face certain problems in our daily life or when social problems arise, the government solves them, or non-profit organizations and companies solve them. Someone has to pay attention to the problem and develop and disseminate a solution. Can the government do all this? Problems can be solved by institutions and policies, or they can be solved by products and services. It can be a public service, or it can be a product or service that needs to be paid for. I would like to think about the ‘company’, which is the entity that makes these products and services.

Multi-faceted Valuation of Social Problem Solving Design: Focused on the Case of Seoul

In the past, public design was understood as an urban environment, building, appearance, and landscape-oriented design activity, but today's social problems are much more complex, personal, and diverse. Therefore, attention is being paid to the necessity and importance of solving social problems in various areas, and in the past, space, reliability, and expertise were emphasized, so expert-centered solutions were attempted, but now residents, who have social problems, are approaching them. Citizens' participation is becoming very important because the residents know the problem best and it is something that should be applied after solving the problem together. This trend has been specified in both the public design promotion plans and the legal aspect, and has already stipulated many changes. In keywords such as development, physical environment, and top-down processes that appeared in the past, cooperation and service-side software are emphasized, and most importantly, the process is led by the people on problems that occur in our daily lives. Now, social issues are shifting toward regenerating existing communities rather than creating new buildings.

Impact and evaluation in designing social innovation

What is the most important agenda in social innovation design? This island metaphor (image) is useful to think about designing. This metaphor helps us to pay attention to both the visible things at the surface, like design products, materials, methods and technologies, and also the invisible things under the water, like values, behaviours, mindsets and worldviews. Designing is a way to make what is invisible under the water, visible. For designing that pursues social outcomes, it is very important to pay attention to people’s values, behaviours, mindsets and worldviews under the water, and undertake designing that materalises what people regard as valuable outcomes for their social well-being. When designing social innovation, this also means listening to local communities and residents, and understanding what matters to them that may be invisible, under the water, and collaborating with them to materialize those values as outcome of designing. There are various tools, methods and approaches in design that are used to achieve those social outcomes together.

The Change of Daily Life, Social Problem Solving Design in Seoul

Paradigm change in public design and the emergence of social problem-solving design Seoul is the political, economic, social and cultural center of Korea. Korea industrialized in a short period of time due to a period of rapid economic growth that is sometimes called the ‘miracle on the Han River’. Although the brand value of Seoul might have risen, has the quality of life of citizens improved along with it?

Challenges and Tasks of City of SEOUL

There are numerous definitions of universal design by experts and scholars. Among the definitions, I think The University of Buffalo defines universal design best: "A design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation.” Universal design is not a result, but rather a process of making. In this context, through various projects, the city of Seoul is implementing universal design that involves the public, solves everyday problems, and ensures that no one is marginalized. Each and All, between individuality and versatility, how can a design for a particular person become a design for all?

Solving Diverse Common Social Problems of Seoul through Design

Seoul is an old city where people first began living 6,000 years ago. During the Joseon Dynasty, the capital was enclosed by four gates, but under Japanese rule, the Japanese government established the Governor-General for 36 years of colonial rule. Afterwards, during the Korean War, Seoul was bombed and the city was turned to ashes. Despite all these difficulties, Seoul joined the OECD in 1996 through rapid economic growth that is called the miracle of the Han River, and in 1988 Seoul introduced itself to the world by hosting the Olympics. Such economic development brought benefits, but on the other hand, it brought the negative problems that go with large cities such as environmental pollution, overcrowding, traffic problems, and social problems. In terms of design, signboards that cause visual pollution in the city center, unplanned skylines, and environments covered with obstacles remain yet another challenge for Seoul to solve.

Creative Design for Social Problem Solving and Social Responsibility Therethrough

The top 10% of the world's population are able to spend $10 a day (about 10,000 won). This means that the other 90%, being unable to spend $10 a day, are very poor. 80% of them spend only about $2 a day. Design is not about making things pretty and beautiful to increase sales, but about finding and solving problems in a certain situation. Solving problems in an innovative and creative way is an essential part of design. Which group has more problems in life: the 10% of the population who can spend $10 a day or the 90% who can't? The 10% of people have issues with desires, and 90% have issues with needs. In other words, 90% of people have problems that are directly related to survival and they need to be considered more seriously. But 99.9% of designers only design for the top 10%. The real social problem is to leave it alone and only engage in the problem of fueling human desires.

Universal Design Policy in Seoul

Seoul's design policy has been in place since 2007. The city’s design policy has been trying to make a cleaner and more sophisticated city, through measures such as improving signage and reorganizing facilities. From 2008 to 2010, the Seoul Design Olympics were held, and in 2010, Seoul was selected as the World Design Capital. For the past 10 years, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has implemented policies focusing on facilities for the disabled through its building certification system for the convenient city life of a wide variety of citizens. With the design policy based on these legal standards, the comfort of citizens has been improved, but it centered on the disabled, and there were cases where public in general was not taken into consideration. This was part of the background for Seoul introducing universal design. The composition of Seoul citizens is also diversifying. As of 2016, the elderly population in Seoul was about 1.28 million, 12.5% ​​of the total population, and by 2027, one in five people is expected to belong to that category. As the number of foreign visitors and the multicultural population continues to increase, this is also becoming an important consideration in Seoul's policies. The diversity of citizens requires more consideration, and Seoul introduced universal design to respect the diversity of all citizens.

Universal Design in the Era of Digital Transformation - Creating a World for All Digital Transformation for Universal Design - Inclusive World

Unlike in the past, the concept of 'disability' is today recognized in accordance with aspects of information accessibility and social context. Many problems can be solved through technology. If accessibility is not considered continuously while creating a new environment, people will feel new disabilities, and to prevent this, accessibility, interaction, and cultural change must be considered. Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Just as in the past Microsoft made it easy for people to access information and the Internet through PCs, its direction now is to help people achieve more than ever before through technology. In terms of increasing the accessibility of information by providing software services to all organizations and everyone, it can be seen that this is in line with the purpose of universal design. When we approach the concept of disability, we think of individual health and physical condition first, but disability differs from general interactions and does not represent physical characteristics or health conditions. Of the many people with disabilities, 70% are visually impaired. In addition, in the United States, about 26,000 people each year have a permanent disability due to bodily injury, and some suffer temporary discomfort due to injury. Therefore, since disability is not determined and applicable by physical conditions, but can be experienced temporarily or contextually, design should be developed and services should be prepared according to these situational criteria. There are over 1 billion people with disabilities on the planet. On top of this, as we are entering an aging society, in the future, more people may face a situation in which they need to work in a different environment or access information. Therefore, accessibility should be considered from a long-term perspective. Microsoft has already developed accessibility and high-contrast screen features in Windows since the early days of Windows in 1990, and will continue to do so in the future.