Cases
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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? -
Health of the residents and city shelter in the post pandemic era
The pandemic that dramatically changed the daily lives and the work environment across the globe is going through a recovery phase in all metrics. Experts have predicted that the humanity will have daily lives that is different from the period prior to the spread of Covid-19 based on the New Normal (Standard that is newly emerging with the change in the era) phenomenon that resulted from the prolonged spread of the infectious disease, and as such, many cities and citizens started to face a new life. -
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.”
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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. -
Seoul Universal Design 100
The concept of urban design that we share today can be found at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty when Great Monk Muhak planned the city by applying the philosophy of Yin and Yang Five Phases at the time, while looking at Hanyang Land with Lee Seong-gye. The traces of urban design that began in this way entered modern times and established an image of a city that combines the past and the present, and we can see traces of this urban design in old palaces, and walls throughout the city. These days, the urban landscape around us remains in the past only, or there are misleading examples of creating a desolate forest of buildings without harmonizing with nature in a biased appearance with only modern beauty. As a city is a place where various people live together, the design should also be created by various people. The most important thing here is the citizens, the actual 'users' of the city. Changes in urban design can begin with the question "How did you consider city users?" -
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.
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A safe space for medical care that boosts resilience and recovery for all
It's been two years since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare professionals have been battling the virus. As the pandemic prolonged, we have been practicing social distancing and self-quarantine in everyday life for the past two years. The unusual situations which people never experienced before became a new normal, and physical distancing and the Stay Home Stay Safe campaign were implemented to minimize direct contact with other people, which ushered into the “Untact” era. Meanwhile, frontline healthcare professionals that treat patients with COVID-19 are directly exposed to the virus and having a very challenging time. Healthcare workers have been known to have a very high level of stress and fatigue even before the pandemic, however, the outbreak of COVID-19 led to the huge demand exceeding the capacity of healthcare systems, and healthcare workers were put under extreme strain due to overwork and chronic stress. -
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. -
Seoul Metropolitan Government creates the “Yard for Centenarians” at welfare service centers and parks near homes for daily prevention of dementia
- Development of a spacial design for physical, emotional and social activities of senior citizens to prepare for prolonged pandemic and super-aged society - Applied to Songpa Senior Welfare Service Center for the first time, 200㎡ scale construction…Mayor Oh Se-hoon will visit the site on the 13th - Exercise equipment to strengthen muscles for performing daily activities, emotional healing area, e.g., gardening and exhibition, social exchange area, e.g., stage and games - An “age-friendly environment,” where people can gain access and live long and healthy in their living areas…Four additional yards by next March
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Universal Design for Public Space
Korea's aging population has increased rapidly since 2000, and it is expected to become a full-fledged aged society around 2018. The Third Basic Plan for Aging Society with Low Fertility, announced on October 18, 2015, includes various plans, such as reviewing the age classification for elderly from 65 to 70 years old. This shows that the aging of the population is recognized as a full-fledged social phenomenon, and that policy preparations are in progress. The concept and principle of universal design as a social phenomenon As awareness of our aging society increases, the application of universal design is also increasing. The first attempt at Universal Design was initiated by the Danish Parents' Association for Disabilities, and later emerged in 1970 as Barrier Free Design and Inclusive Design. The term ‘Universal Design’ was first introduced in Korea around 2000. The concept of universal design was defined by Ron Mace, director of the Universal Design Center at the University of North Carolina, as "designing products, spaces, or buildings that are considered for use by as many people as possible." The same concept was called Barrier-Free Design in Japan. Europe uses the terms Inclusive Design and Design for All. Universal design is an environmental safety design that provides a convenient and fair opportunity for anyone, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or disability, and covers a wide range of areas, including education, culture, information and services. -
Universal design of Yokohama City Current events in design
The evolution of universal design in Japan Yokohama City is an area with a population of 3.77 million. Its area is about three quarters of Seoul, and it is divided into 18 wards. It started with a population of 500 150 years ago, and after the port was established, the population increased. However, the rapid population increase between 1960 and 1970 caused problems in urban development. Yokohama is currently a city with a significant aging population. Although this is a problem for Japan as a whole, based on the analyzed data, the population growth trend of Yokohama City is expected to peak in 2019. After that, the proportion of the elderly population is expected to continue to increase, and it is expected that one-third of the total population will be elderly by 2030. Looking at the map showing the aging population, it is like looking at the history of how Yokohama's housing development has taken place. The beginning of universal design in Japan was triggered by the Tokyo Olympics 50 years ago. The Tokyo Olympics, held in 1964, introduced the use of pictograms to solve the problem of communicating with foreigners. In 1965, Braille blocks were introduced, and actual installation began in 1967. In 1969, awareness of the need to make the city accessible to wheelchairs increased. Braille blocks were first introduced in the provincial cities to the western part of japan, which is also the case with barrier-free access in Japan, which started in provincial cities rather than the capital. -
A Study on the Application of Universal Design for Urban Mobility of Buses - Seoul Design Foundation
The 'Universal Design Application Study for Urban Mobility of Buses', a collaborative study by Seoul Design Research Center’s TBS Research Center, Professor Young-Jun Koh of Seoul National University of Science and Technology and Professor Min-Hyeon Choi of Sungshin Women's University, started in June 2016 is expected to run until December 2016. The study aims to apply universal design principles to buses, bus stops, and bus operation information, establish a future bus service scenario study, and to study universal design in smart bus usage information. The ultimate goal is to generate universal design guidelines for buses and bus stops, universal design guidelines for operation information services, and near-future bus service scenarios. This study was based on preliminary studies including, 'Criteria for standard low-floor bus model (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 2016)', 'Accessible bus stop design guidance (Transport for London, 2014)', 'Japanese standard specification low-floor bus guideline', 'LinkNYC (New York, USA) as well as 'Maps related to domestic and foreign bus use'. In order to identify the applicable factors, domestic and foreign bus usage surveys were conducted, by visiting Seoul, Japan (Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka), and London, UK. Bus stop facilities, and operation information at bus stops were the subject of the survey. In the case of domestic buses, it was found that the vertical handle in front of the wheelchair user area of the bus creates difficulties for wheelchair movement. The wheelchair lift operation sequence was difficult to understand as the instructions were only given in text. It was found that electric wheelchairs could be dangerous because they could not be fixed to the bus.
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Public Space and Design for Everyday Lives of Citizens
City is an inevitable space of life for the modern people. The skyline that we are currently experiencing, the plaza, parks, natural environments and so forth are mostly the result of the city plan that was systemized in the past, and until now, the urban space was planned to play its role in line with the usage that was planned and defined based on function. Various parts of cities that achieved industrial competitiveness by prioritizing efficiency and economics is far from ‘user-centric approaches’ and achieving ‘sustainability’ that is the focus of today’s society. Future city should be restructured into a space that can enable exchange and circulation based on the needs and the thoughts of citizens or stakeholders of local communities, and aged spaces and the environment should be improved to resolve urban issues. -
Public design for people, cooperative public design
Design has always evolved as a meaningful means to achieve an objective or a part that is required in the society. Currently, active efforts are being made to resolve the issues of economy, environment and safety through design. In the recent times where we are transcending the era of industrialization to usher in the era of sustainability, design that improves the competitive industrial products is beginning to contribute to our society as design that improves public values as a part of the strategy to resolve problems from the perspective that design is changing in line with the demand of the society. ‘Public design’ is playing a leading role at the center, and from now on, 'design' will resolve a considerable number of issues that our society will face, and it will be making various contributions as a cultural pillar of life. -
SMG Universal Design
Until now, the public sector has prioritized efficiency enhancement through ‘standards’ in terms of service provision. Today, we are rapidly moving from mass production from the perspective of suppliers to the era of small batch production from the perspective of consumers. Because it is a smart era armed with various information and technologies, the standard framework alone cannot satisfy the diverse needs of citizens or lead to an affluent life. At this point, we need to think about who public design is for. WHO; Who is Universal Design for? Citizens who do not have disabilities and are still young do not feel the need to be specially considered by someone in their daily life. However, according to statistical data, the rate of congenital disability is only 5%, and temporary or situational disability that can be experienced in daily life accounts for a much larger proportion than permanent disability. Therefore, when we consider universal design in the public domain, we need to approach it from the perspective of various lives and situations, rather than looking only at people with disabilities. The diversity of physical conditions such as height, strength, dexterity, balance, attention, etc., the difference in language ability based on language and expressive power, the difference in sensory ability such as hearing, sight, and touch, and the difference in cognitive ability such as comprehension and intellectual ability that should be considered
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Policy direction identified from the analysis of the diffusion process of Life Safety (Crime Prevention) Design
The anonymous cities that we have been building allowed us to have maximum freedom and make various choices, however, inappropriately, the cities have mercilessly reduced many alternative choices such as collective community action that were available in the past. Only for the limited purpose of reviving the collective environment, physical design of living environment must be used. -
Social Problem Solving Design, Reinforcement of Resiliency Capacity Through Design
The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis that no one has ever experienced. Existing social problems, such as economic recession, relative poverty, increased depression due to social isolation, and the intensification of suffering experienced by vulnerable groups such as infants, young children, the elderly, and the disabled, are being exacerbated by the pandemic. Medical staff and other members of society in various fields are making every effort to identify and deal with unpredictable situations in their respective positions, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government is also currently doing its best to overcome the Corona situation. We are now living in an era where problem-solving strategies are needed more than ever. There is an urgent need for a paradigm shift in policy to prevent and improve social problems that incur huge social costs, rather than reactive measures. Design is one of the main solutions to improve this, and it is a core competency and process that is already being used by many organizations and companies pursuing innovation as well as the public as a tool for solving problems. Through the social problem-solving design policy, the Seoul Metropolitan Government breaks away from the microscopic view of physical improvement and applies design to the overall municipal administration, designing a plan and process for problem-solving, and jointly solving it with various stakeholders. ‘Social resilience’ can be said to be the interaction between the vulnerability of a city and its resilience capacity. The vulnerability of a city is affected by many social problems inherent in the city, and the city's recovery capacity means the city's resources and systems that can overcome and solve these problems. Seoul Design wants to work together to increase the resilience of society so that our daily lives, which have been changed by non-contact, isolation, and social distancing, can be more closely connected. -
Going Public
The public realm is not a default condition, but rather something which must be actively produced, designed, and constructed. How we design it has the capacity to transform how we identify ourselves as part of a collective society, how we form common values and common ground, and how the notion of “the public” is constituted—to design for the public realm is also to design a public through that realm. Today, it is a site of overlapping constituencies, interests and stakeholders that create a layered set of complex interests constantly in negotiation. Because design is inherently specific, we value this specificity to make meaning, engage audiences, and create place. In this lecture, J. Meejin Yoon will present projects that address the public realm as a site of negotiation and formation, where placemaking, activation and design intersect to produce the “urban alchemy” of the contemporary city. This lecture will demonstrate how design has the capacity to engage the public and transform the public realm.
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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). -
The Direction of the Design in The Age of New Normal ‘To Empathize with Costumers and Design New Connections through Design Thinking’
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social systems that operated through human connections fell into sudden stagnation. The free and flexible daily life of citizens was controlled and limited, and the operating speed of the existing system was significantly lowered, increasing the inconvenience and difficulties of citizens. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis that no one expected and could not prepare for, members of society are showing some results by designing and implementing devices that can promote social connection in order to break through the disconnection and resulting inefficiency. It is necessary to think about the impact of these attempts on the lives of citizens and the sustainability of these connections. -
The future of smart office, after COVID-19
The spread of the corona virus in 2020 has caused rapid changes in work patterns due to the normalization of working at home. Although there is a realistic limit to building a work environment with a specific concept in an unprepared situation, efforts are being made to respond to these changes in their own way, and each company needs time to compromise to create a safer work environment. It is time for designers to make efforts to find the interface between a space that harmoniously connects people and a space that prioritizes safety. Although it is necessary to change the philosophy of space itself, it is expected that human attempts to challenge the limits will continue.
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Respond to the crisis, “Coronavirus reminder’ – from observation to action (Designing Safety Content That You Want to Keep It on Your Desk)
Corona Alert started at the end of January, not long after the outbreak of COVID 19, with the idea of creating a service that can give a little help to society with the programming skills we learned. The members who developed 'Corona Alert' all gathered through the same programming conference. The team members who studied coding together at the conference and had experience in actually developing various services were working as developers of startups. I saw a lot of advertisements saying that such sites exist. We first analyzed several services already on the market. If it is similar to the previously released services, there is no significant meaning, so we considered the inconveniences and the direction of improvement for the existing services. In addition, we established the core value of the service by determining on what points we differentiate, and what value we can provide to users, beyond simply removing inconveniences. -
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. -
Sustainable Clothing Design for Children With Cerebral Palsy With the Heart of a Mother
Public design that turns daily inconvenience into something beautiful and efficient; the “needs” of public design start from the following three situations. First, people are too familiar with the problem situation. Second, there is no known solution, or the needs are in the blind spot of the managing body. Third, the needs cannot be discovered easily because of special circumstances. This is the reason why the starting point of successful public design should be accurate identification of the inconvenience of users.