Seoul Design Foundation, 2020
Location: DDP, Dongdaemun, Seoul, Korea
Participation: Experience & Environmental Design
Located in DDP, Seoul, UDP is a multi-purposed platform for design research, development, and dissemination of Universal Design:Design for All. It aims for a better future lifestyle, in which all the design standards change and advance.
It serves as a promotion space and a testbed for young designers and start-up companies, containing research labs and exhibition areas wherein advanced and open-minded designs could be cultivated. Besides, the Seoul Design Foundation organization actively supports them, providing free space and materials.
DDP, Seoul, Korea
Spaces in the platform resembles the urban environment for human life, wherein the people of our society live together. It starts with UD HOME and extends into UD CITY. On this platform, UD PRODUCER, UD CONSUMER, and UD PEOPLE will meet to share their knowledges for universal design and new technologies to create new business values and opportunities.
The urban individual's residential life, pretending living environment with low ceiling and artificial light
The urban outdoor life everyone shares, pretending urban environment with high ceiling and natural light
How might we make UDP a sustainable design platform for both environmental and operational purposes?
DDP: The building wherein the UDP is located has an atypical floor plan, and only 65% of the area is allowed for the exhibition. Besides, there should be 20 individual booths maximum, and those must be able to be re-organizable for four times of annual updates. So it was challenging to put all the exhibitions, laboratories, and offices inside the space. In addition, the auditorium area must be adjustable to the purpose of events.
Since there must be numerous content providers, the information system for average visitors is critical. To provide optimized information and to adapt to the ever-changing exhibition program, the information system should be flexible and customizable to the diverse interests of users.
"Changing exhibitions quarterly costs a huge budget and uses tons of materials, increasing CO2 emission."
"Frequent renovations require unnecessary updates on way-finding system."
Solution 01: Modularized structure
• Making content updates more flexible
• Minimizing Construction by removing partitions
Solution 02: Instant way-finding system
• Making user journey adaptive to each user
• Offering maps made of re-used paper
Since the changing exhibition content requires continual remodeling, it was the most crucial task to find a way to minimize the physical construction. Moreover, the way-finding system should be updated after each renovation, heightening the staff's workload. To solve these problems, we devised two prototypes to minimize resource and energy consumption and reduce operational efforts during the 4 times of annual updates.
Users become UD PEOPLE and engage on the platform through the process of exchanging ideas. By getting customized content suggestions based on their own preferences, the visitors can experience the platform and access the information they are interested more efficiently.
At the lobby tablet, the printed ticket with the QR code, code number, and personalized content position is provided by selecting a keyword depending on the users' interests
For more details, users can scan the QR code of a UD tag using their smartphone or tablet
Entering a keyword for the UD lifestyle in the UD OPINION space, the keywords entered are screened and transmitted to UD Stream, which flows through the walls and ceilings of the lobby
Example: Printed Ticket
UD POD is a crucial communication tool, generating Production and Consumption simultaneously as it moves through space
/ Represent philosophies rather than the product itself
/ The prototype is more important than the finished product
/ Provide an innovative experience using a module system
/ Encourage interaction with elaborate storytelling
/ Utilize diverse media.Induce spontaneous involvement
/ Accumulate information through surveys, feedback of the user
Moduler Variation
The floor plan of UDP follows the modular system so that all the exhibition contents can be placed intuitively and efficiently. Content providers can move their own UD PODs following the guidelines on the floor as the event planning.
The auditorium area in the UD CITY is a multi-purposed space. It should be able to accommodate optimized environments for diverse activities, such as exhibition, new product launching, and conference.
The gigantic LED screen that is rotatable will be adapt to the each situation in conjunction with the moveable UD POD modules, providing optimized formation for the events.
Flexible structure, maximizing space utilization
We intended to make UDP a more sustainable data archive that could help tenant companies do more effective R&D. To realize that, all the information during the user journey should be automatically collected and shifted to the feedback for the users. All the exhibition elements have touch UI enabling users to participate in the event proactively, and the user inputs saved in the central database are integrated with the website and mobile app. This system also connects users to social network platforms like Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter to extend user experience after visiting the exhibition. The user histories are archived in the cloud and sent back as images and videos.
During the journey in UDP, the users experience diverse aspects of Universal Design for both in-door and out-door environments. The exhibition area for visitors and working space for tenant designers are organically positioned to make the working area a part of the exhibition so that users can participate and directly share ideas with content providers.
