2023 Seoul Design International Forum for Urban Design for Humans - Humanising Cities: Humans • Design • Cities
>>> 2023 Seoul Design International Forum Review
2023 Seoul Design International Forum for Urban Design for Humans - Humanising Cities: Humans • Design • Cities
At first glance, I thought the topic of the forum was very ironic. Why this topic? When 'humanizing' is interpreted, it means 'a city from a human/human perspective', and the fact that it reminds us of this proposition, which was taken for granted, can also be interpreted as showing that there have been shortcomings and regrets in becoming a 'human-centered city'. am.
In that respect, the 2023 Seoul Design International Forum, held at the multipurpose hall on the 8th floor of the main building of Seoul City Hall on September 14, was meaningful in reaffirming the value standards and basic discourse for urban design. This event, which was held simultaneously online and offline, consisted of lectures by seven speakers over five hours, and talks in which all speakers participated. This year, Thomas Heatherwick, founder of Heatherwick Studio, Shigeru Ban, a famous disaster architect, and architect Mijin Yoon, dean of Cornell University and co-representative of Höweler+Yoon Architecture, who has worked on many public design projects, participated. Domestic speakers included Choi So-hyun, head of Naver's design and marketing division, Maum Studio CEO Lee Dal-woo, and Unique Good Company co-CEO Song In-hyuk.
Who is architecture/space for?
Thomas Heatherwick, who was the keynote speaker, was also the one who proposed the theme of this year's forum. In that respect, Heatherwick's lecture contained the macro topics and agenda that encompassed this forum. He is saying, ‘Let’s look at the city again from a human perspective, from a human-centered perspective.’ When asked to think of the elements that make up a city, buildings, streets, and cars are most likely to come to mind, but in fact, it is rare for people to come to mind first. Considering this, Heatherwick's obvious suggestion seems somewhat unfamiliar. However, the ‘human-centered city’ that Heatherwick talks about is not a difficult theory or discourse. Ultimately, this is the user's experience or feeling. What he emphasized, who is already considered the best expert in his field, was that ‘cities and the buildings that make up a city should be evaluated and discussed not from the perspective of experts who build them, but from those of us who directly use them and see them (that is, citizens).’ Heatherwick emphasized that citizens should talk about the city more earnestly and actively, and urban and architectural experts should listen more closely to the stories of citizens.
Citizens have millions of needs. Ultimately, meeting the needs of that many people is almost impossible. However, urban (or public) design must consider the convenience, demand, and potential desires of as many citizens as possible. Therefore, honestly, it is easy to be evaluated as ‘even if you do well, you get your money’. However, at this time, what should once again become the standard for all of us is the concept of ‘public’. The standard should be whether the issue concerns the majority, if not all, of those living in the city. In that respect, the implications of Shigeru Ban's disaster architecture for us are significant in other ways as well. Shigeru Ban emphasizes that although architects and designers are driven by requests or suggestions from clients, architects themselves have a role to play with public values and standards. His disaster architecture may not apply to most people, but it is important in that he serves as an expert in emergencies that can occur at any time. Shigeru Ban's architecture is considered a temporary space to respond to a disaster, but it is also significant in that it is used permanently afterward. In the face of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons that cannot be helped by human power, haven't we already seen how easily the role of hardware such as cities or software such as public disaster systems collapses and collapses? Therefore, before Shigeru Ban's disaster architecture, the city's public systems and hardware such as buildings, ports, and roads in preparation for disasters and catastrophes should also be more carefully considered. To this end, the need for architects and designers to be more actively involved in urban planning was also considered important.
Humanizing is not grandiose.
The lecture by Choi So-hyun, head of Naver's Design & Marketing division, Lee Dal-woo, CEO of Maum Studio, and Song In-hyuk, co-CEO of Unique Good Company, showed various examples of what the role of space and architecture should be through projects carried out by the companies they worked for.
Naver's office building and training center, introduced by division manager Choi So-hyun, symbolically demonstrated that Naver's space is positioned as a place that faithfully fulfills its human-centered role beyond its employees. What is especially impressive is a training center like ‘Gak Chuncheon’ that is still actively used 10 years after its completion. In most cases, additional devices are continuously added to the space due to a lack of analysis of user behavior and psychology, but Naver's space has predicted and prepared for many scenarios that may occur within it in advance. The difference between a space created in anticipation of the user's psychology, behavior, and various problems that may arise, and a space that was not, was ultimately a matter of sustainability, so it had significant implications.
It was necessary to listen to the lecture by CEO Lee Dal-woo and co-representative Song In-hyuk with a focus on ‘for what’ and ‘for whom’ the design and content were designed rather than hardware content. Creating ‘popular and interesting’ content that can be shared and enjoyed by a large number of people or people of a specific target generation is one of the important tasks that designers and creators think about. In that respect, Maum Studio's reading aprons for children and Unique Good Company's projects were worthy of attention as examples of satisfying the elements of 'interest' and 'pleasure'.
Public design at the city level needs to analyze overseas cases in more depth. In particular, the large and small urban projects developed by Cornell University Dean Mijin Yoon were enough to show how diverse and active the social role of design can be. If you look at it one by one, it may not be such a grand or sweeping change. However, the most important thing is to find a sharp intersection of various needs of citizens rather than trying to take everything for the sake of everyone. That is why experts from various fields, including designers, humanists, philosophers, and scientists, participate. It was implied that Design Seoul is more important.
The topics of these speakers' lectures were closely connected to the topics discussed in the ‘Design Seoul 2.0’ policy proposed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Design Seoul 2.0 consists of a multi-layered strategy for the needs of a new city and the needs and convenience of citizens, including the Seoul font, ‘Seoul Bit’, benches along the banks of the Han River, installations for pets, and mountain and walking trail designs for hikers and walkers. done. As Seoul City Design Policy Director Choi In-gyu, who introduced Design Seoul 2.0 through the forum, mentioned, overseas cases and strategies of major organizations were used as a reference, but in the end, what is important is the thoughts of Seoul citizens and the convenience they want. Accordingly, discussions on further subdividing the scope into the most efficient policies and decisions in terms of design and functionality have become more important. The lecture was a meaningful time that raised expectations that Seoul City's efforts for this purpose would become more active.
Now through the eyes of citizens
One of the important topics that ran through all lectures was ‘sustainability’. In particular, one of the words that came out of almost all the speakers was ‘nature,’ and I sympathized even more with CEO Lee Dal-woo’s comment that ‘no matter how much you embody nature, it is not real nature.’ None of the buildings, spaces, or roads are real nature. However, humans cannot live away from nature and must live as close to nature as possible. Finding the most comfortable, nature-friendly, convenient, and pleasant way for humans to live, isn't this proposition ‘humanizing’, which speaks of ‘human-centeredness’?
This year's Seoul Design International Forum was an event where the city of Seoul declared Design Seoul 2.0 and presented a variety of macro topics. Most of those who participated in the 5-hour forum were students and people working in design, architecture, or urban areas, but the content of the lecture was not overly technical or difficult enough to be interesting and understandable for the general public. Therefore, we recommend that you carefully read the content of the lecturers' lectures uploaded after the lecture. This is because the discourse on urban design does not end with the forum, but is now beginning, and will come from the honest and uncompromising ‘humanizing’ of ‘us’, the citizens, and no one else. I hope that interest in this regard will become more active from now on and that such fields will be opened more diversely.
Sanghee Oh
Content planner/design editor
