3rd Pre-forum for 2022 Seoul Design International Forum Part1
3rd Pre-forum
for 2022 Seoul Design International Forum
Participants: Lee Hyun-sung (Professor of Hongik University), Lee Jong-hyuk (Professor of Kwangwoon University) Seo Seung-gyo (CEO of HiDD Group), Hong Tae-eui (CEO of Public design STU.dio)
Seoul proposed forms such as cognitive health design, stress-free design, and crime prevention design through social problem-solving designs since 2014 and also continuously implemented design projects that realize various public values. We will take a deeper look on the types of issues that are identified by the design in our lives, and how design creates public values through use cases. The 3rd advanced forum will be carried out in the order of the role, strategy and method of design. In the first session, we will look into the role and value of design on universal issues and aging through the design of ‘consideration’. In the second session, we will study the cases of strategy that ‘resolve’ issues in our daily lives through design. Lastly, we will examine the meaning of the ‘governance’ design that is shaped together with citizens.
TALK 1. Value of custom public design that is easy to understand and is convenient
[Lee Hyun-sung]
The first case is a project titled, '100 year-old Garden', which is the first dementia prevention park in Korea. Design of public space that prepares for the aging society within the vicinity was proposed to implement the concept of A.I.C (Aging in Community) that refers to people who continue to maintain their lives in their living area after they have aged. This project is very significant in that it proposed a way for the design to be applied in the community while targeting users that require social considerations.
[Lee Jong-hyuk]
Senior citizens spend the majority of their leisure hours in the local community they live in, and I believe it is very valuable in that a community space of public garden is being provided in a space that the elderly citizens are familiar with in their daily lives.
[Seo Seung-gyo]
I can also empathize with the name of ‘100 year-old Garden’ which embodies the meaning of a garden that is not restricted to only the senior citizens, but a garden that everyone can participate in. This is a positive aspect that displays the potential of being shared and used by various members of the region.
[Lee Hyun-sung]
It would be nice to have a pretty and comfortable park in our daily space, but we could think about the new role of design from the perspective that through design, a space with social meaning that prevents dementia and allows the community to be gathered together can be created through design. We will explore the design case for a ‘senior citizen center’ to take a deeper look at the topic on aging.
‘Hwamok Senior Citizen Center’, a universal design project of Seoul is a project where citizen experience group directly participated twice in the stage to discover issues along with the application of physical universal design with the help of experts, and it is a valuable project because it realized the design from the perspective of users.
[Hong Tae-Eui]
When we look at the specific example of applying the user-centric consideration design, physical characteristics and daily habits of senior citizens were analyzed to apply a design that considers the usability for senior citizens in objects such as drawers that can be used without bending their backs, accommodations that are fit for sedentary lifestyles, or devices that warm cold handles.
[Lee Jong-hyuk]
I believe better solutions will be identified through the participation of experts and citizen experience group along with the process of observing design beneficiaries and stakeholders. I believe using collective intelligence to create the output of a completed senior citizen center and the process are both very significant.
Also, the brand, ' Hwamok Senior Citizen Center ' has a significance. It is portraying the importance of communication through brand by breaking away from the bias that can be an existing stigma or prejudice about the senior citizen center.
[Seo Seung-gyo]
I believe the future Hwamok Senior Citizen Center may resemble the flat wooden bench that we used to see at the entrance of villages. We can also think about the possibility of a harmonious public space where not only senior citizens but the young people, and those in the surrounding areas can all participate to communicate together and get along.
[Lee Hyun-sung]
For something to be universal, it ultimately has to be opened up to everyone so that it is accessible, and when we examine the project that enhances the guideline on the application of the universal design of Seoul, the access to universal contents is being maximized in a very broad sense. The universal guideline can not only be accessed easily using smartphones, but it is sometimes translated, and the universal space can also be experienced in the virtual reality. Now, a platform is being developed so that the useful contents of the universal design can be accessed with more ease.
[Hong Tae-Eui]
It is true that until now, it was difficult for the general public to access the information on the universal design because it consisted in the form of documents that were mainly viewed by experts. The construction of a platform that can be easily accessed by anyone can be seen as the ‘universalization of the universal design’.
[Lee Jong-hyuk]
Various projects intended to enhance access not only to allow easy access but also to create opportunities to expand the experiential areas. This can also be interpreted to mean that in the near future, anyone who can access the platform would be able to become designers.
[Seo Seung-gyo]
Enhancing access to problem solving and providing various experiential methods for the implementation of the public design are all very meaningful activities. From the perspective of users, loss can be minimized because they can estimate the value of the universal design in advance and experience it.
[Hong Tae-Eui]
I believe the universal design of Seoul is a ‘dish’. The concept of the universal design is that it can embrace everything, so I believe a dish that can embrace diversity is the universal design of Seoul.
[Lee Jong-hyuk]
I believe the universal design of Seoul is ‘everyday lives’. At the moment, there is no empty space anywhere in Seoul. Everything in our everyday lives is indispensable to design, and thus, I would like to define it as ‘the universal design of Seoul is everyday lives’.
[Seo Seung-gyo]
I believe the universal design of Seoul is ‘communication’. Since the universal design is not limited to a specific person or a user but provides universal values to anyone who can enjoy and experiences that anyone can participate in, I would like to refer to the universal design of Seoul as ‘communication’.
[Lee Hyun-sung]
Today’s design is not an area that is limited to experts, and it is an area that we all have to think about together to create. We could explore the hidden values of the universal design of Seoul through assessments by experts and universal design cases of Seoul. I hope the design project of Seoul will continue to expand so that it can come closer to the daily lives of the citizens in the future.
