Warmest greetings from Seoul, Korea!
We cordially invite you to join 2022 Seoul Design International Forum to be live-streamed at 13:00-18:00 on October 5, 2022(KST). Click here to convert the time and date of the forum into your time zone.
Please make registration at here to receive an email including a streaming link to the forum and the program book.
Problem solving and city making - A design approach to cities and their difficult social problems (Summary of the recorded speech)
In modern cities, chronic social problems such as deepening inequality, aging, the spread of chronic diseases, difficulties in immigrant integration, and, more generally, threats to social cohesion are intertwined. These problems can be defined as 'chronic' problems because there is no solution when the commonly used conceptual framework is applied. On the other hand, by changing the way we look at these problems, we can find solutions within new systems (new social, cultural, economic and technological systems). To do this, you must have both practical sense and creativity, which in fact corresponds to design capabilities (and that applies to whoever does the design).
Special Interview: Rachel Cooper
When thinking about Design as a resource for the city, it is important to understand the attributes of Design. Thinking about the Design process and the ability to translate numerous interdependencies into a tangible visions, is very much the value of Design. Many government organisations are looking to Design as a way of creating value, buy helping policy makers rethink policy, around issues such as net zero, health and wellbeing. Design organisations within government should be organised in such a way that they are able to synthsise science social, science and cultural insights, to help policy makers, and citizens co-imagine alternative furture, imagine the implications, benefits of policy and service design. This means Designers at the heart of government in policy labs, insight and foresight units. In terms of creating value one of the areas that design needs to engage with is the notion of value… how does new policy, new services, new urban design contributribute to environmental value and social value. Much work has been undertaken on establishing the natural capital value of enhanceing environments through policy making and design, much less has been done on how to establish social value through Design and quantify and evaluate it. This is the much more complicated area where Design needs to establish a strength.
My Visit to the SDIF 2025
Hello, this is Sseugo! How have your days been lately? I’ve had a pretty busy week in many ways. I went to Mangwon Hangang Park, joined a printing workshop… I was really all over the place. And of course, I can’t leave out the Seoul Design International Forum 2025! (Because I’m a SDIF 2025 supporter!)
Good Environments Make the Youth Emotionally Healthy
“Social problem-solving design” that changed our everyday life — youth problem-solving design The social problem-solving design project of the SMG that began since 2011 has undergone a transition from a “policy-centered” design to a “human-centered” design by proving its effects and receiving the attention of residents. Accordingly, the SMG started the design project in 2014 to solve problems faced by the youth, such as school violence, emotional anxiety, digital dependency, and peer relationships. The first step was the school violence prevention design project which sought points for improvement by analyzing various causes of school violence. The project name was changed to youth problem-solving design in 2018 as its scope has been expanded from school violence to other youth problems that are regarded as social issues. In particular, the necessity of the project emerges from the fact that problematic behaviors of the youth are worsening in terms of the quality and diversifying in terms of the types and targets. There is an urgent need for a solution that considers the developmental stage of the youth and regional characteristics. The youth problem-solving design project of the SMG will be examined by focusing on six representative cases of youth problems.
Citizen-centered Problem Solving, The Value and Performance of Social Problem Solving Design
This presentation aims to accomplish three goals - to introduce concepts and methodologies of social problem-solving design; to draw value of social problem-solving design from cases shared at the previous forums hosted by the city of Seoul; and to put forward designers’ future role and vision in relation to the evolving social problem-solving design. Intro: Widening a Role of Design Across the globe, we’re seeing more complex and diverse issues in our society ranging from social structures and policies, climate change, pandemics, to inequality. Design’s role and potential are expanding in addressing these issues. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has included public service design in the Administrative Procedures Act to encourage citizen participation. Similarly, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has incorporated social problem-solving design into its policies and general plans.
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?"