Design Seoul

Based on the vision to ”design caringly for citizens”, Seoul has been designing people-oriented solutions, not only to improve the quality of living, but also to enhance its competitiveness by vitalizing the design industry in Seoul. To make Seoul a more people-centered city, Design Seoul established five principles: Airy, Integrated, Preserving, Collaborative and Sustainable design. It also formulated Design Seoul Guidelines, which have been applied to Seoul’s public spaces, facilities, buildings, visual media, outdoor advertisements and other relevant items. A few examples are: The Dasan Call Center, which is a telephone service that has revolutionized city services in Seoul; the Gwanghwamun Square Project that has transformed part of a 16-lane road without a walkway into a new public space in downtown Seoul; the Namsan Renaissance Project that turned the Mount Nam Park District into a extraordinary tourist venue with a very scenic jogging route with easy access for the public and the Hangang Renaissance Project, which has created a leisure infrastructure along the Han River, which is known mostly for its crude, concrete embankments and jungles of cookie-cutter buildings. “The changes were gradual so Seoul residents did not feel a big change within a short period of time”, the Mayor explains and elaborates: “It has been five years since we began this project, and foreign visitors, who only come to Seoul every once in a while, praise the notable changes in Seoul.”