This October, the 2nd Seoul Design Olympiad will once again focus the city’s attention on the importance of design in boosting Seoul’s competitiveness as an international city and strengthening the local economy through creativity. As the man responsible for pushing this massive event, Lee Soo Yeon, director of the Seoul Design Olympiad Division of Seoul Design Headquarters, wants to raise the awareness of design among Seoul’s citizenry, especially its youngest members. “We need to boost the awareness of design from children on up,” he says. “We need to wake children’s creativity through design.” Do do this, Lee is aiming to boost the opportunities for public participation in this year’s Olympiad. In particular, he has set in motion an ambitious project to make the festivity an “edutainment” experience for children through the convening of an “i_Design Academy” that will unlock the budding designers within the youngest of Seoulites and provide a pool of creative talent for the next generation.

100,000 Dreams for a Better Future

In the 16th century, famed Joseon scholar “Yulgok” Yi I proposed that Korea raise an army of 100,000 men to defend against a potential Japanese attack. This advice was ignored, and in the last decade of the century, after Yi’s death, the Japanese did attack, laying waste to much of the woefully unprepared Korean peninsula. In the economic battles of the future, in which design will play an key role, Seoul is determined to make sure the lessons of the past have not been forgotten. Says Lee, “We need to create a Design Olympiad program for everyone, not just professionals.” Seoul Design Olympiad is broken up into four main sections—a conference, exhibition, competition and festival. Each section will feature events for professionals running side-by-side with events for the general public. For instance, says Lee, the conference section will feature side conferences for the public such as one on home design featuring well-known TV personality Ida Daussy. The key, however, is the “i_Design Academy,” a program to be conducted by Seoul City and Fissler Korea to educate children about design. According to Lee, the program aims to create “100,000 dream trees,” a reference to Yi I’s warning to the Joseon king. At 22 classes to be offered for 21 days in tent classrooms set up within Jamsil Stadium, the main venue for the Olympiad, children ages 2 to 12 will get a chance to experience the design process. Seoul expects some 42,000 children to participate. In the same period, children will get a chance to learn about design through some 100 pieces by famous local and overseas designers in a hands-on program to be conducted in the Jamsil Stadium’s air dome. Indeed, the theme of this year’s Olympiad, “i-Design,” suggest the truth that we are all designers. This includes even Korea’s resident foreigner community. Explains Lee, “We are preparing programs for resident foreigners, too. For example, there will be National Days, like Germany Day, in which visitors will be able to see design products from the relevant nation.”

Design Loves a Depression

Lee emphasizes the importance of design in the national economy. “Korea is an IT power,” he explains. “This is in large part thanks to companies, but citizens play a big role—they are used to technology and are good at adapting new technologies. Likewise, the Seoul Design Oympiad plans to raise the awareness of Seoulites to design. And who knows? Perhaps after 10 years, Korea might be as advanced as Italty in design.” The importance of design is never more important than in times of economic distress. Lee cites a recent New York Times article from January entitle, “Design Loves a Depression.” To quote the article:

“American designers took the Depression as a call to arms,” said Kristina Wilson, author of “Livable Modernism: Interior Decorating and Design During the Great Depression” and an assistant professor of art history at Clark University. “It was a chance to make good on the Modernist promise to make affordable, intelligent design for a broad audience.”

Lessons from Last Year

As successful as the first Seoul Design Olympiad was last year, there were still lessons to learn, says Lee. Perhaps Jamsil Stadium wasn’t as well utilized as it could have been, he notes. “Jamsil Stadium was loosing money, so we wanted to reuse the building creatively, which is to say, we wanted to incorporate TPS (Transforming Public Space). Visitors, however, experienced difficulties due to lack of facilities.” He also notes that last year’s “software” was perhaps a bit insufficient for the task. For example, the food could have been better, and promotional efforts could have been more efficient. These are all factors Lee and his team are paying careful attention to this time around.

More Information

Seoul Design Olympiad is set for Oct 9 to 29 (20 days). The principle venue will be Jamsil Sports Complex. For more further information about the Olympiad, check out its official homepage at do.seoul.go.kr.

Written by Robert Koehler
Photographed by Ryu Seunghoo

(Source: Monthly SEOUL)