Creative Design for Social Problem Solving and Social Responsibility Therethrough
SPEAKER: Sangmin Bae (Professor, Department of Industrial Design at KAIST)





SPEAKER: Sangmin Bae (Professor, Department of Industrial Design at KAIST)
Crime, School Violence, Stress, Obesity... Can We Find Solutions Through “Design?”
Narrow and complex alleys where criminals could hide and flee easily were improved with healthy community content. This region formed a strong bond among residents by closely cooperating with the community service center, district office, and police. “A” is a 31-year-old office worker who gets scared on the way home from work late at night. The shanty town crowded with old houses has somehow become gloomier after the termination of the rebuilding project. “B” living in Gasan-dong, Geumcheon-gu, is in a similar circumstance. “B” feels bleak to walk in a place packed with houses and small factories where there is no one else in sight. The way to go home, the most comfortable place, became the scariest route. In response to this unfortunate paradox, the SMG prepared for a realistic countermeasure with “design.” This solution was derived from the process of changing the scariest route to an enjoyable route, gathering residents, and letting criminals know.Considerations regarding healthy city after COVID-19
1. Statistical figures on the status of coronavirus outbreaks by city in Korea Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in South Korea on January 20, 2020, the coronavirus has spread rapidly in Korea, peaking on February 29, 2020. Since then, there has been a rapid re-spreading trend twice up to October, and the capital city, Seoul, has 53.13 confirmed cases per 100,000 population, the third highest number after Daegu and Gyeonggi-do.Universal design that makes life easier for citizens
Design is an essential tool for making life easier for citizens. Good design eliminates user discomfort and this is a quality that applies equally regardless of the presence or absence of a disability. Therefore, I think universal design is a design that considers the needs of all people. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has been pushing for UD guidelines since 2010 for facilities for teenagers, the elderly, the disabled, and children, who are various users of welfare facilities, and has been consulting actual welfare facilities with these guidelines.Designing Safety Content That You Want to Keep It on Your Desk
It is no coincidence that when some major safety incident occurs is when most people take an interest in safety. When an individual pays particular attention to safety in daily life, it is because some accident or incident has motivated them to do so. While the type of content that can be easily accessed through smartphones is becoming more diverse and complete, it makes us wonder if the safety of our society is changing. It makes us wonder if safety measures are competitive. The Safety Design Research Institute ‘Osafe’ started from this question. “How can we keep people safe?” “Isn’t it possible to prevent unexpected safety accidents in advance? “ “If there is an unavoidable safety accident, what can be done to minimize the damage?” Osafe works based on a design methodology. In order to be chosen by modern people who live busy lives, we are working hard to produce and share safety content that can stand out, have fun, and form a consensus.New Challenges in City Design to Post-COVID
At a time when the world is thinking about the form of cities to come after Corona, we need to think about how cities should be constructed from a more comprehensive perspective. In addition to the challenges triggered by the coronavirus, the problem of climate change, which must be approached from a particularly long-term perspective, is an area that cannot be prevented or treated, and is a topic that needs to be found through continuous problem-solving, dialogue, and discussion. How should we respond to the problem of climate change that all cities face in the future and must solve in the long term? We would like to discuss six issues on climate change to be announced at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).Increased Happiness Index: Reduced Stress With a Change of Design.
Korea is the Republic of Stress. According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 2016, over 90% of adults are stressed in their everyday life. In the 2016 Seoul Survey, over 53.5% of Seoul citizens responded they felt stressed in the past two weeks. As such, stress is becoming increasingly generalized and chronic in the lives of contemporary people, but there is no definite measure to avoid stress. Based on this idea, the SMG planned “stress-free design” as a part of the social problem-solving design in 2016. By breaking away from the conventional method of improving the physical environment and providing material support, the SMG attempted a new public policy to take care of mental health. The purpose is to lower stress faced in each life cycle and situation and bring healthy life to individuals and society by improving factors that hinder the mental health of citizens through design.Design that draws a new world
You may remember the controversy, which took place between the right and the left sides in 2019 when the Republic of Korea commemorates its 100th anniversary, on the question whether the year 2019 is the 100th anniversary or not. However, when the first year of another centenary began in 2020, there was no proposal of ideology or vision for the next 100 years despite the controversy in the previous year. I thought that it just goes that way. Then, COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world, creating radical changes as if the pandemic cleans up the world.SIDF 2022_Forum registration
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.Universal design that makes life easier for citizens
Design is an essential tool for making life easier for citizens. Good design eliminates user discomfort and this is a quality that applies equally regardless of the presence or absence of a disability. Therefore, I think universal design is a design that considers the needs of all people. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has been pushing for UD guidelines since 2010 for facilities for teenagers, the elderly, the disabled, and children, who are various users of welfare facilities, and has been consulting actual welfare facilities with these guidelines.From First Class to Coach
Universal design is increasingly becoming an important part of our lives. Universal design should ensure transparency and involve as many people as possible. Universal design encompasses all fields, including economic, architectural, and social design. The history of universal design can be said to have started with the Weimar Declaration. The Universal Design Forum is a German non-profit organization whose purpose is to create a safe place for all of us. We see universal design as an economic and social mission. There is an old German saying, “A good idea reflects the times.” Today, with rapid changes with industrial development and technology, it is necessary to seek changes in production to accommodate good ideas, and to apply universal design globally by changing all strategies and methods that have been pursued previously. In the past, most buildings were made of wood. Wood has the advantage of allowing you to build a house in a short time, but it has the disadvantage of low sustainability because it is vulnerable to fire and wind. At the time of the Bauhaus, standards of design and construction were defined. The definition concerned planning standards and standards for how a particular building should be built based on ergonomics. It was published as a book and used as a guidebook for builders worldwide.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.The Value of Universal Design Enhanching a City Branding and Success
The Universal Design International Seminar hosted by the city of Seoul from 2016 to 2020 made a contribution to the evolution of universal design. And we’re in the process of re-connecting the achievements so far with values that create urban competitiveness and branding. At the same time, the unprecedented pandemic has upended every aspect of our life, causing distress and a sense of alienation. Against this backdrop, the presentation focuses on the necessity and achievements of design policies incorporating ‘design as a value creator’ into people’s everyday lives and our society that yearn for restoration and healing.