Organised by The British Council Korea with the Korean Institute of Design Promotion
The event
Seoul, whose Vice-Mayor is himself an industrial designer, was designated World Design Capital in 2010, and has celebrated with numerous design events, many with a focus on Design for All.
In 2009, the Helen Hamlyn Centre was invited by the British Council Korea and the Seoul Design Foundation to run the first 48 Hour Inclusive Design Challenge in Korea as part of the Design Olympiad. Held in the Jamsil Olympic Stadium, it was the largest to date, with eight teams of designers from across Asia, each led by UK.
It lead to an invitation from the Korean Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP,) the government body tasked with promoting design. The British Council organised the event. It was held at the Coex Hall in the World Trade Center Complex in Gangnam District in Seoul, as part of Design Korea, the country's annual design festival, where leading firms and organisations from Korea and abroad show their wares.
A bi-lingual version of the Trading Places exhibition, celebrating 10 years of the Challenge workshops, was also on show.
The brief
The brief linked sustainability to inclusivity and centred on leisure, pleasure and social interaction. The teams were asked to design something that could be low or high tech but had to be built around a sustainable present and future scenario and use of materials and/or technology.
The results
British Council Korea Director Roland Davies chaired the event on stage in the Coex exhibition hall and the teams presented their ideas to the jury of four leading Korean design experts.
Team GTen led by Gavin Thomson of Gavin Thomson Design won Best Idea prize for Toi'let, an adjustable toilet concept that makes the intimate act easier to accomplish for everyone. Best presentation prize went to Team iPop led by Studiohead's Matt Harrison for a mainstream device and smart phone application inspired by their profoundly deaf design partner, that enhances the cinema experience for everyone by projecting subtitles on to a pair of glasses with an embedded transparent video screen.
