The winners of the Seoul Design Award 2023 were announced at the Seoul Design Award 2023 Ceremony at Dongdaemun Design Plaza. 13 designers from nine countries are among the 22 awardees who were honored and congratulated by Seoul’s Mayor Oh Se-hoon, as well as the event’s global audience.

Ambassadors attended the Seoul Design Award 2023 Ceremony at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)

Seoul Design Award is an international design award that is presented to design projects that propose creative and sustainable solutions to solve problems of daily lives. This year, Seoul Design Award (formerly called the Human City Design Award) expanded its scope to ‘design for sustainable life’. As such, many more international experts were invited as the jury and the scope of prizes and registration areas were also expanded. As a result, the number of participating design projects’ countries doubled as compared to the previous year. The number of submitted works also increased to 356 submissions.

15 jury members from 12 countries judged the submitted works based on the criteria in line with the theme of Designs for sustainable daily life that aim for harmony between people, society and the environment.

Seoul invited the top 10 winners and special prize winners to attend the Seoul Design Award Ceremony at Dongdaemun Design Plaza. Ambassadors of awardee’s countries also attended to congratulate their winners.

Exhibition at D-Soop of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)

Citizen’s Prize

Following the selection of top 10 nominees, an online citizen voting was carried out domestically and internationally where the citizens determined the winner of the Citizen’s Prize, a special award. The winner of the Citizen’s Prize was announced during the Award Ceremony to be ‘Amphora,’ designed by Air Design Studio from Tunisia. Citizens provided feedback on the projects: “It was impressive because there were many projects that acquired innovative ideas and made the environment clean through elements that were absolutely required for us to live such as water and air.”

Kunpyo Lee
Kunpyo Lee
Sevra Davis
Sevra Davis

Kunpyo Lee, Dean of School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Sevra Davis,  Director of Architecture Design and Fashion of the British Council, were the two co-chairs of Jury Committees of the Seoul Design Award 2023. Lee stated that he “could find great changes in this award. I found many design projects for the social innovation and sustainability. Many design projects cover more than single object but with various design fields which are well aligned with the ‘Seoul Design Award for sustainable life”. Davis noted that overall, the jury was “impressed by the entries all around the world with different scale of design projects. Especially as I could see designers who were thinking deeply about the future of the design that impacts on the human society and the environment.”

Mayor Oh Se-hoon attended the ceremony to present the prizes and to convey words of congratulations. “I thought that it would be great if Seoul could also hold a global design award, and seeing how designers from various parts of the world and ambassadors of various embassies have participated, I am very pleased because Seoul Design Award is settling itself as a global design award.”

Amphora by Air Design Studio (Tunisia) was selected as the winner of the Grand Prize, the top award of Seoul Design Award 2023. Amphora is a jar-shaped product that makes safe drinking water using humidity in air and solar heat. The design of Amphora was inspired by a jar called amphora that was used to store water in the ancient Greek and Roman era. It received a high score because it is a method that can supply drinking water in a sustainable way in regions that are facing water shortage. It can make drinking water using nature as a single tool, without any special devices. Judge Dominique Sciamma (Director and Dean of CY École de Design and CEO of ACPI Promotion Du Design) evaluated the project and shared: “This is a smart proposal that simultaneously resolves many issues that we face such as water shortage, autonomy of drinking water and plastic waste.”

Three teams were selected as the winners of the second prize, Best of Best. Thailand’s Classroom Makeover for The Blind by Creative Crews.Ltd received the prize for Creativity/Innovation, Thailand’s Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion by Chat Architects received the prize for Participation/Cooperation, and Korea’s Jerrycan Bag by Jerrybag Inc. received the prize for Inspiration/Impact.

Classroom Makeover for The Blind is a project that remodeled an old library of a school into a multi-sensory experiential classroom that aids in special early education of children with visual impairment. Children with visual impairment becomes acquainted with senses by touching the learning pins installed on the walls of the classroom and learns braille in an experiential manner through what is embedded on the floor.

Jerrycan Bag is a bag that helps African children to safely transport jerry cans (water containers). It consists of design and waterproof materials, and reflective signs are attached to the back of the bag to prevent the risks of car accidents. Jerrycan Bag was designed by Korean design company but produced by Uganda women and it is donating these bags to Uganda children.

Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion is a project that created a new economic structure called eco-tourism by redesigning the oyster farm structure, and it induced active cooperation from local fishermen and added vitality to a declining fishing village.

Six teams were selected as the winners of the third prize, Honorable Mentions. Hover over each image to see a description.

Craste

Craste, designed by Craste from India, is tree-free packaging design which recycles crop residue that would otherwise be burnt.

 

 

Off Campus Nolo

Off Campus Nolo, designed by Polimi DESIS Lab (Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano) from Italy, is an off-campus Living Lab collaborating on new spatial and service design projects to enhance the wellbeing of local residents.

Xicoténcatl Park

Xicoténcatl Park, designed by Taller Capital from Mexico, is a public design project that transformed a streambed full of debris into a park for local residents.

The New Face

The New Face of Batik Lasem Industry, designed by Fashion Design, Maranatha Christian University from Indonesia, is an eco-friendly fashion design renewal project that improves the sustainability of
Indonesia’s declining Batik industry.

Fortaleza Micro Park

Fortaleza Micro Park, designed by Secretaria Municipal do Urbanismo e Meio Ambiente de Fortaleza from Brazil, is a spatial design project of eco-friendly micro parks in underutilized urban areas lacking in green spaces.

Voga

Voga, designed by Ines Vlahović from Croatia, is a design project that recycles seaweed waste from local beaches and simultaneously encourages community engagement.

Sullivan Plus
Sullivan Plus
Let it bee
Let it bee

Two teams were selected as the winners of the Special Prize. The Issue of the Year Prize was given to Sullivan Plus. Designed by Tuat and SK Telecom from Korea, the project is service design that provides relevant information by voice on behalf of the eyes of the blind and low vision. The Research Prize was given to Let It Bee. Researched by SiNae Song of Korea, this sustainable pollinizer experiment project aimed to support the pollination of honeybees at the Kew Royal Botanic Garden in London.

Trophy

The newly designed trophy was made by LAB.CRETE from Korea. To showcase the value of sustainability, the trophy and package is 100% recycled or eco-friendly. The main material of the trophy is made of Jesmonite and seashell, while the box is made of recycled plastic and cover package is made of recycled vinyl.


To learn more about Seoul Design Award, and to view this year’s winning projects, please visit http://www.seouldesignaward.or.kr/en.