SEOUL DESIGN AWARD

 

 - One hundred projects from 22 countries were submitted; and ten winners for Honorable Mention Prize were selected by experts

- Citizens’ Award to be selected by citizens were created, and the online voting will be from 15th February to 6th March(Citizens’ vote will only proceed in Korea this year.)

- The award ceremony will be held online on 21st March 2022, the anniversary of DDP, attracting attentions from designers around the world

 

 

 

□ Ten winners for Honorable Mention Prize of Human City Design Award has been announced. Human City Design Award is an international design award sponsored by Seoul Metropolitan Government and organized by Seoul Design Foundation (CEO: Lee Kyung-Don).

 

□ The ten projects selected for the Honorable Mention Prizes are as follows:

○ Accessible Beaches that designed a solution enabling people with disabilities who use wheelchairs and the elderly to enjoy beach more easily(by No Barrier in Muğla, Turkey)

○ Cine Passeio that revitalized an old street by repurposing a military building based on the inspiration from an old theater

(by IPPUC (Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba) in Curitiba, Brazil)

○ Den-paku Hotel that connects traditional cultural experience of a village with a stay in historic houses

(by Shima Hito Takara General Incorporated Association in Amami, Japan)

○ Gardens in the Air – Neighbourhood lights that restored urban ecosystem using water generated from air conditioning outdoor units

(by Nomad Garden S.L. in Sevilla, Spain)

○ House of Dreams that was designed for community center with residents by using an abandoned cave area and wastes in the area

(by Insitu Project (Kuo Jze Yi, Peter Hasdell), Zhoushan Community Group (Liang Jun) and Ku Hok Bun in Dengfeng(Zhoushan), China)

○ La Mexicana Park that transformed a quarry in the urban area to the most safety park in the city

(by Mario Schjetnan in Mexico City, Mexico)

○ OOZOORO1216 that was created as a participatory space for the “Tween” generation aged between 12 and 16 who want to explore the world

(by EUS+ Architects in Jeonju, Korea)

○ Place des Possibles that is a participatory construction project gradually transforming a old factory in the area with members of the local community

(by Collectif Etc in Saint Laurent en Royans, France)

○ Trash Busters that presents a resource circulating solution replacing disposable products with multi-use products

by Trash Busters in Seoul Korea)

○ Yujidao Park which designed a large-scale and ecosystem-based park harmonizing city with nature.

(by BLVD International in Nanchong, China)

 

□ Human City Design Award is an international design award presenting prizes to the individuals or groups of individuals who achieved harmonious relations among people or between people and environment for sustainable city. The 3rd edition of the award started receiving submissions from August last year. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 100 projects from 22 countries were submitted. After expert screening, the foundation selected ten winners for Honorable Mention Prize.

 

 

□ The screening will see whether the designs

1) solve problems in the urban life;

2) expand value to the world; and

3) present future vision.

After three rounds of screening by experts, the Award will grant 50 million KRW and a trophy to the winner of Grand Prize, and 5 million KRW and a plaque to each winner of Honorable Mention Prize as well as special prizes (Citizens’ Award and Safety & Security Award).

 

□ World’s renowned experts in design including Charles Landry(the leading authority on Creative Cities) and Lu Xiaobo(Dean, Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University), participated in the screening to ensure expertise and fairness of the award. The Human City Design Award announced its ten winners for the Honorable Mention Prize who are also the candidates for the Grand Prize, after live presentations and discussion via online video conference. This year the foundation created Citizens’ Award and plans to grant a prize to the design which is the most popular among citizens.

 

○ Online and offline citizen vote will begin from 15th February 2022. Online participation will be available on the official webpage, and offline participation will be available at D-SOOP, 1F, Design Lab building of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). Citizens can also participate in a giveaway by posting a content verifying their voting at the site or on the official social media channel of DDP. They can also appreciate the designs of the winners of Honorable Mention Prizes.

○ Citizens who voted can get a variety of free gifts, such as coffee coupons or card wallets made out of the banners used in the 2nd Human City Design Award ceremony. Citizens’ vote will only proceed in Korea this year.

 

 

□ The awards ceremony for the Human Design City Award will be held online on 21st March on the anniversary of DDP, announcing and presenting the winners for Grand Prize, Citizens’ Prize and Safety & Security Award.

 

□ Chair Soonjong Lee of its Steering Committee said, “even in the continued COVID-19 pandemic, designers around the world are not giving up their dream for better city, happier city, and healthier city, moving toward the future.” He also added, “the value of the Human Design City Award will be fulfilled when their design efforts and good influence spread out further.”

 

□ In 2019, the Grand Prize of the 1st Human City Design Award went to Dunoon Learning and Innovation Project, which attracted attention as a case that showed good influence of design by establishing a library and a future education innovation center for children in a poor village of South Africa.In 2020, the Grand Prize was granted to Countless Cities. This project transformed old houses in Sicily, Italy abandoned 10 years ago into a space for art exhibition and community, and revitalized the city to a destination attracting 100,000 visitors. It reminded us of the importance of design once again.

 

 

 

□ 10 Honorable Mention Prize

 

 

① 'Accessible beach' that helps wheelchair users and the elderly enjoy beach more easily 

    (by No Barrier in Muğla, Turkey)

 

○ Accessible Beaches is a project of designing all the facilities on a beach in Mugla, Turkey, including deck, changing rooms, and shower booths, barrier-free, so that people with disabilities and the elderly with mobility difficulties also can go into the sea, enjoying the beach more conveniently.

○ The deck made with a special material has been installed on 19 beaches since 2016. As it is designed to prevent wheels from being stuck in sand, people with disabilities can get to the beach by themselves in their wheelchair. Since this detachable deck can be installed and demolished easily, beach space can be utilized in a versatile manner for different seasons.

○ This project is being expanded from Mugla to other regions in Turkey, presenting a best practice that people with disabilities, caregivers and tourists can be equal on a beach.

 

 

② 'Cine Passeio' that revitalizes an old street by repurposing an old military building based on a memory of an old theater 

  (by IPPUC (Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba) in Curitiba, Brazil)

○ Cine Passeio is a project that repurposed a military building constructed in the 1930s to house administrative part of Brazilian military into a cultural center by paying homage to a theater located at the center of the city in the past.

○ Cine Passeio includes two screening rooms, educational facility and multi-purpose space. Also, it is designed to allow people to enjoy films and performances with a large LED screen installed at a nearby outdoor park.

○ Another strength of Cine Passeio is various cultural and art programs that invite citizens to a social space where design, art, technology and culture meet together. With these experiment, the building revitalized not just Riachuelo street, but also its neighboring areas.

 

 

 

③ 'Den-paku Hotel' that connects the experience of traditional culture in a village with a stay in historic houses

(by Shima Hito Takara General Incorporated Association in Amami, Japan)

 

○ Den-paku Hotel is a redesigned accommodations of old traditional houses in Kasari town, northern part of a small and beautiful Amami Island, which has been recognized as a World Cultural Heritage.

○ This project not just utilized empty houses for accommodations, but also developed an experience program for communication between local residents and tourists, so that local people can create additional income.

○ Den-paku Hotel has expanded from two empty houses in 2016 to 30 houses and buildings, including 44 guest rooms. Now, its goal is transferring traditional culture of the village to the next generation by using the income generated by residents.

 

 

 

④ 'Gardens in the Air' that restore an urban ecosystem by using the water generated from air conditioning outdoor units

 (by Nomad Garden S.L. in Sevilla, Spain)

○ Gardens in the Air are a project carried out in Sevilla, a hot and dry city with 82.6% of air conditioner penetration rate. Its main activity is creating gardens by using about two liters of water generated from air conditioner operation every hour.

○ In the Gardens in the Air installed on the exterior walls of an old building, plants suitable for the local environment were planted. These gardens also serve as fountains for local birds in the area.

○ Centering around these Gardens in the Air, there are other activities on-going, such as a workshop on making perfume using local plants, namely tangerine trees, and composing polyphony music by capturing human and non-human sounds.

 

 

 

⑤ 'House of Dreams' that was built by residents using an abandoned cave and wastes in the area

 (by Insitu Project (Kuo Jze Yi, Peter Hasdell), Zhoushan Community Group (Liang Jun) and Ku Hok Bun in Dengfeng(Zhoushan), China)
 

 

○ House of Dreams is a project to make a community center in an abandoned cave house in Zhoushan village, Dengfeng, China with active participation of local residents. Through this, the project gave them a new perspective about design.

○ Residents from 100 villages in the vicinity collected wastes and participated in construction, leaving their story and memory on the surface of the building. This project gave them an opportunity to take pride about their community and deeply understand ways to recycle wastes.

○ The process of designing the community space through on-site discussion without any provided technical drawings made these unskilled residents main actors in the design process.

 

 

 

⑥ 'La Mexicana Park' that transformed a quarry into the most safest park in the city

(by Mario Schjetnan in Mexico City, Mexico)
 

 

○ La Mexicana Park is located in an area that has been used as a quarry for 50 years. Though original plan was constructing a large-scale apartment complex, local residents took the initiative to have negotiations with the municipal government and private developers for 10 years and finally designed this large-scale park.

○ La Mexicana Park is the most safest park in the city without any crime taking place for the last three years. It also became one of the famous places in the city, attracting two million visitors per year since the opening of the park.

○ Since the park is operated with the rent from convenience facilities, it does not require any municipal budget. Therefore, it proves that a large-scale bottom-up design project can be financially independent.

 

 

 

⑦ 'OZOORO 1216', a participatory space designed for the “Tween” generation aged from 12 to 16 who want to explore the world

(by EUS+ Architects in Jeonju, Korea)

 

○ OOZOORO 1216 is a project to create an alternative space outside of home and school for the so-called “Tween” generation aged between 12 and 16. The focal point of the design inspired by the walls of Jeonju Castle allows people to explore the space by connecting different zones with a corridor, rather than creating a room.

○ A participatory design workshop for the “Tween” generation who will actually use the space allowed children to take part in the design work and gave them capabilities to the lead design process.

○ After the opening of the space, through this project children can be managers of its library to introduce the space to others and make guidelines. They can also experience the process of improving the environment by themselves.

 

 

 

⑧ Place des Possibles that was repurposed from an old factory in the city by working together with local residents in a gradual manner

(by Collectif Etc in Saint Laurent en Royans, France)

 

○ Place des Possibles is a participatory construction project that turned an outdated textile factory in a small village into a cultural space through cooperation between local residents and experts.

○ Instead of a large-scale construction with a huge amount of upfront cost, the project was conducted in a gradual manner based on a cooperative design with small budget. Also, local actors participated in the entire process.

○ This project transformed an old metal ventilation equipment into furniture, while designing a new sign of the building out of an old metal panel. This work developed through resident workshop, presenting a new direction of sharing design.

 

⑨ Trash Busters that developed a solution circulating resources to replace disposable products with multi-use products 

(by Trash Busters in Seoul Korea)

 

○ Trash Busters was organized in 2019 to address disposable wastes issue in urban areas. It designed a circular system in which it lends multi-use containers to festival sites, event venues and theaters where generally disposable products are widely used; collects them; clean them; and lends them again.

○ After their service life, the multi-use containers made of polypropylene (PP) which is no harm to human body and heat resistant will be crushed into small grains and turned into a new product. This prevents the production of disposable products from the beginning. Therefore, it reduces carbon emissions not just from the production of disposable products, but also from the incineration of disposable products, while cutting down cost for waste treatment.

○ With convenience and kindness at the core of its design philosophy, the project adopted an interesting concept by using a BI (brand identity) that paid homage to Ghostbusters logo to bust wastes, not ghosts. Through its brand design with vivid orange color, instead of green that symbolizes eco-friendliness, Trash Busters makes the utilization of multi-use containers a new trend.

 

 

⑩ Yujidao Park, a large-scale park designed based on an eco-system where a city harmonizes with nature.

(by BLVD International in Nanchong, China)

 

○ Yujidao Park is designed like a piece of landscape painting by visually connecting old city with new city through Jialing River, Sichuan, and harmonizing it with a variety of plants.

○ In order to protect natural forest, while considering the experience and participation of visitors, the flow of visitors have been optimized and roads and buildings were designed according to the scale and space of the forest.

○ Through this project, we can appreciate not just the majesty of giant nature, but also the considerate efforts of the design for coexistence with nature.