Monthly <Design> Nov Issue. Toward a City of Empathy and Inclusion, SDIF 2025
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Design Next: Rewriting the Language of Cities, Seoul Design International Forum 2025
Hello! I’m Nayoung Kwak, supporter of the Seoul Design International Forum 2025! The urban landscape changes with time, but Seoul is leading this transformation through design. From small street signs to large-scale urban spaces, and even to the way people live, design has become more than just an aesthetic element — it is the language of the city and the key to shaping the future. -
[Session2] Design by Community: Advocating for Community Power in New York City Government
Hi everybody. Before I even begin, I just want to say it is an immense pleasure and privilege to be here. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Deana Yu, and I am the Assistant Director of the Service Design Studio. And for the next 20 minutes of my presentation, I want to invite everybody here to travel 7,000 miles away—to where I’m from. -
Designing the resilient post-pandemic city
As the world, which has achieved rapid urbanization, is struggling to adapt to extreme weather and the corona crisis, the question of whether cities can ensure the safety and well-being of all citizens has been put to a critical test. In the midst of today's high-impact change, urban planners, architects, policy makers and public health professionals all face the challenge of making cities more resilient. What is the city's resilience? In a narrow sense, resilience refers to the ability to return to its original form after some negative event or influence, that is, to restore its original position or form. However, the resilience of cities means more of a role for them than being a healthier place for their citizens to live and work. Resilient cities must have the ability to anticipate the future and adjust health-related systems and designs accordingly. Therefore, when the term resilience is applied in terms of a healthy city, it can be seen that various aspects are accompanied. -
Humanising our Cities
Heatherwick Studio believes that emotion is the crucial ingredient that is missing in so much of design today. When did everything become so boring and homogenous? Who is really thinking about how to make buildings, places and objects mean something to us - to lift our spirits and connect us? How can we make our cities more human? World-renowned designer Thomas Heatherwick will outline his thoughts around how designers and policy makers can create more human places, and explain how a fundamental understanding of emotion has shaped how Heatherwick Studio works across all scales and typologies. Thomas Heatherwick is one of the UK’s most prolific designers, whose varied work over two decades is characterised by its originality, inventiveness and humanity. Defying conventional classifications, Thomas founded his studio in 1994 to bring together architecture, urban planning, product design and interiors into a single creative workspace. Working across multiple scales, locations and typologies, Heatherwick Studio has developed into a team of 200 makers and inventors with no signature style. Lead by human experience rather than any fixed dogma, the studio create emotionally compelling places and objects with the smallest possible climate shadow. From their base in London, the studio team is currently working on over 30 projects in ten countries, including Azabudai Hills, a six-hectare mixed-use development in the centre of Tokyo, the new headquarters for Google in Silicon Valley and London (in collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group) and Airo, an electric car that cleans the air as it drives. The studio has also recently completed Little Island, a park and performance space on the Hudson River in New York; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; and Coal Drops Yard, a major new retail district in King’s Cross, London. Thomas’ forthcoming book, Humanise, will be published by Penguin in 2023 -
[Session 1] City, Design and AI
[Sang Lee] Today's presentation topic is 'Urban Design and Artificial Intelligence'. Since it's not too difficult a topic, I hope you can listen comfortably. I am currently a Creative Director at TikTok, working on AI system implementation. Before that, I was a Design Director at Google, and prior to that, I was the head of C+ AI Plon Studio at Microsoft. Before that, I worked at LYIN Digital. This year, I wrote a book called 'AI Works, Humans Grow' which fortunately became a bestseller. Thank you. -
Design Strategies that Make Urban Experiences Special
Welcome, everyone. I’m Lee Hye-young, director of Design Policy Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Government. This year’s event is held under the theme of ‘Re-connect: Design as a Value Creator.’ In line with this, I’ll focus on various values that design offers by sharing people’s experiences in my presentation. What are some experiences that you find special? We face many different situations in life and go through numerous emotions. We sometimes feel afraid, isolated, or bored. Some cities give us negative emotions mostly, while others make us feel calm, excited, or respected. Cities should provide positive experiences to residents as well as visitors. Then what role can design play to help cities achieve this goal? I’ll share some examples in Seoul to demonstrate the values that design can bring as a core urban strategy.
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Design 2.0 Design Policy and Future Strategies
I am honored to be speaking with Thomas Heatherwick and Shigeru Ban and I think the interesting designs of Lee Dal-woo was a good stimulus. I will. I will now think again about the actions to be taken by a big city like Seoul Metropolitan Government. My presentation will be about the fun city with vitality, Seoul. I will be presenting in the order of 5 Vision Principles that were carried out. -
Senior life in the era of Ageing society
According to the World Population Ageing 2020 published by UN, the Ageing population that consists of those who are 65 years old and older has reached 720 million people in the world as of 2020, and is predicted to account for 1/6th of the global population in 2050. Our society is also at the brink of entering the super-aged society as the baby boomer generation transferred into the elderly population starting from 2020. The expansion of the ageing population could be seen as a result of a natural phenomenon in the midst of the extended life expectancy of human on the back of advancement in the medical science and technology. The change in the demographic composition is a critical factor that determines the future of humanity. In particular, since a dramatic change in the demographic structure such as ageing can lead to various changes in the local community, global efforts are being made to seek out multi-angular countermeasures to ageing. -
[Keynote Session 1] The Spirit of Success – Designing the Urban Quality of Life
[Prof. Dr. Peter Zec] Urbanization and City Challenges I'm happy to return to Seoul, a city I've known well since the late 1980s. This familiarity brings me here today to reflect on the DDP and World Design Capital Project outcomes. Urban populations continue to grow globally - 57% of people now live in cities worldwide, with developed nations showing even higher percentages: Japan at 92%, the US at 83%, Korea at 81%, and Germany at 77%. By 2050, this is expected to reach 68% globally. Cities attract people with their facilities, lifestyle, and entertainment options. However, cities face significant challenges. Climate change impacts are evident - from recent floods in Spain to Seoul's challenges with the Han River during heavy rains. While politicians may favor electric cars, they likely won't resolve our clean energy and air pollution concerns. Seoul leads in smart mobility, with what the mayor describes as the world's benchmark metro system. While modern cities increasingly use surveillance, it should focus on safety and urban understanding rather than tracking individuals as seen in Chinese cities. -
Life Design for Well-Leaving through Well-Living
Life design for well-leaving through well-living is a very significant theme for all of us to understand. Through this presentation, I would like to share my personal experience regarding care design at the final stage of life and further discuss how such design can be proposed as a policy -
Healing Space Completed with Design: Yeoui Roll Park!
The "Yeoui Roll Park," which opened in April, is a boundary-free space for play, exercise, and relaxation. It serves as a new concept of community sports space where people of all ages and abilities, regardless of disability, can come together to enjoy and engage in physical activities. Today, I’d like to introduce you to Yeoui Roll Park, located in Yeouido. -
Public Design Governance
Last month, a “Consultative Group of Residents for Publilc Design” was established by Seongdong-gu District Office. It was the nation’s first consultative body in design that engaged residents and consisted of eight residents, four expert members, two design experts and one public officer. Through the consultative group, the district was able to quickly collect residents’ opinions about relevant projects including the one related to public design and combined experts’ advice thereby setting a direction for design. It was designed to become a channel to communicate with the residents. In today’s multifaceted and complex modern society, existing design process that produces an outcome by utilizing intuitive ideas of only few designers has often turned out to be insufficient to meet the needs of the citizens. In response, this has shed a light on the need to come up with an innovative method to engage citizens, cooperate with stakeholders and experts for higher level of self-reliance and sustainability. The word “public” in public design means an unspecified number of the general public and together, which incorporates a value of engaging various players and cooperating in the process to create a design intended for everyone. The strategy that is being used to realize the afore-mentioned value of public design is a governance taking a perspective of “various methods for problem-solving.”