As the urban population increases and the city progresses around the world, numerous social problems such as the gap between the rich and the poor, environmental pollution, and disconnection of communication are constantly occurring. In particular, the constraint of the pandemic that occurred at the end of 2019 combined the existing urban problems with the special situation of disaster, which further aggravated the crisis. In such a situation, it is natural that design is being required as a new alternative for a sustainable future.

‘Human City Design’ is a creative design that contributes to forming a harmonious relationship between people, society, environment and nature by solving complex urban environment issues and presenting a new vision. In 2018, the Seoul Metropolitan Government declared ‘Human City Design Seoul’ for the first time in Asia, revealing its aspirations for design that creates a people-centered and sustainable urban ecosystem, and announced the enactment of ‘Human City Design Awards’ which is an international awards ceremony that gives awards to designers or organizations that have contributed to realizing that concept of Human City Design. It is expected that these efforts towards a Human City will be a clue to achieving the goals of social healing and restoration of daily life in the pandemic situation.

From that point of view, the ‘Human City Design Workshop’, a joint project to share the vision of Human City Design Awards with the university network, has more significance. The Human City Design Workshop, which has been held every year since 2018, is a workshop where future designers, undergraduate students, participate to discover urban problems and seek solutions that contain the values of Human City Design. In particular, from 2020, as the Korean Society of Design Science and Seoul Design Foundation signed an MOU on cooperative operation, the workshop grown in size and has evolved into an undergraduate student workshop based on systematic and long-term research.

Unlike last year, when we had to limit the scope of workshop to domestic universities as we experienced the pandemic for the first time, the 2021 Human City Design Workshop becomes more significant in that international teams participated. This year, a total of 31 teams (26 domestic teams and 5 international teams) participated and suggested various design ideas. Through various programs including orientation, team workshops for three months, result presentations which was held as a part of the KSDS Fall International Conference, the public forum, and the online exhibitions, this workshop became a place for affluent interaction and consensus building.

I hope this exhibition will present the passionate discussion process and results of domestic and foreign university students to the world, and serve as a momentum for everyone to understand the concepts of Human City Design through exploration of various cases and ideas. I also hope that this will be an opportunity for citizens to independently and actively consider how to solve large and small problems in cities in the midst of a pandemic. I would like to thank all involved personnel and participants for being with us with sincerity despite the many restrictions due to COVID-19.

Everyone who has taken one step forward to Human City, Welcome!