Pensar la ciudad

El mes pasado tuve la suerte de ser invitado a formar parte del International Advisory Board de "Seoul - World Design Capital 2010". Durante casi una semana participé de reuniones de trabajo con expertos en diseño del mundo entero y pude conocer de primera mano los esfuerzos que está desarrollando Seúl para transformarse en una metropolis del siglo XXI. El Alcalde, Oh, Se-hoon, es un tipo joven y con una visión clara sobre lo que pretende para la ciudad. Su discurso de apertura para la Seoul Design Olympiad, titulado "Green, Blue & History", fue una clarísima hoja de ruta de los cambios que están encarando y de la meta que pretenden alcanzar. No logré encontrarlo en Internet, por lo que pego sólo algunos párrafos destacados. Puedo enviar el documento completo por mail a quien lo solicite.

In other words, it is always ok in the urban design to create a lot of green space in cities and provide water-friendly space by introducing water in our living while creating an ‘identity’ in urban design that reflects the historical connection. It must be the principle of the urban design and should be applicable to anywhere and any cities in the world.

(...)

As I addressed in the opening ceremony of Seoul Design Olympiad today, Seoul weighed more to the public design in the past 1 year but for about 2 years to come, we plan to focus on industrial design. For this reason, we introduced our vision as ‘Designomics’ that aims to vitalize the urban economy and create new added-value through design. As for the reward of our efforts, Seoul Metropolitan City was selected as the World Design Capital for the next year. I am sure Seoul Design Olympiad that started today is one of the processes toward the great event to be held in Seoul next year. In this extent, I’d like to show you the transformation progress of Seoul in terms of the concept ‘Green.’

(...)

The second theme is water. I wonder if you have ever thought that ‘Seoul City is getting closer to water.’ Recently, Han River and streams connected to Han River, such as Anyang-cheon or Jungrang-cheon or Tan-cheon, are changed to a shape that is easily accessible on foot and riding a bicycle.

(...)

Well, the next and the last theme is 'identity'. An identity comes from the history and from now on, I’d like to introduce several examples of introducing history into design.