SPACE December 2023 (No. 673)
On Oct. 26, the ‘Seoul Design Conference’ took place at the DDP Art Hall. This conference, held as a side event to ‘Seoul Design 2023’ hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, was planned as ‘a venue for communication to realise ESG values’ and invited domestic and foreign architects, designers, and trend experts to participate. First, at the Special Discussion, Choi Sohyun (head of Design & Marketing, NAVER Corporation) took the role as moderator and led a discussion on the ‘The Role of Design in Sustainable Cities’ with Lee Younghye (CEO, Design House Inc.), Ban Shigeru (principal, Shigeru Ban Archiects), and Birgit Lohmann (co-founder, Designboom). Ban Shigeru, who displayed Disaster Temporary Housing Module at the special exhibition, introduced his previous works such as the Paper Log House (1995), Paper Shelters and Papertainer Museum (2006) all of which used paper tubs as their building materials. He mentioned the case of the Paper Church (1995) built during the Kobe earthquake, which was relocated to Taiwan (2005), and emphasised the necessity for architects to question and challenge the concepts of ʻtemporaryʼ and ʻpermanentʼ architecture in terms of sustainability. The ensuing discussions ranged from an interest in small commercial spaces improving quality of life (Lee Younghye) to a designerʼs responsibility and design inclusivity (Birgit Lohmann) viewing materials and humans as equals rather than beauty for the sake of consumption. Boomserm Premthada (principal, Bangkok Project Studio) presented in the following session. He introduced Elephant World (2020, covered in SPACE No. 642), a village where humans (kui) and elephants coexist, along with the Artisans Ayutthaya (2021), a restaurant designed to preserve local food cultures and provide jobs for elderly women in the area. By introducing the two projects, he raised points of discussion concerning the coexistence of nature and humans, and communities and regions. As Ban Shigeru said, ‘Design must be a means of solving problems’; for a sustainable city, now is the time for the imagination and the challenges faced by architects and designers to advance towards solutions rooted in reality.
Exhibition view of Disaster Temporary Housing Module by Ban Shigeru ©Shigeru Ban Architects
