Seoul Design Cloud offers a range of events

Choi Kyung-ran, president of the Seoul Design Foundation, gives a presentation on the upcoming Seoul Design Cloud event that will take place from Sept. 17 to 26, at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul on Sept. 3. [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

The Seoul Foundation has hosted a Seoul Design Week event every autumn for years, but in 2018, the foundation rolled out something different and larger in scale.

Instead of a design week, this year’s event is dubbed Seoul Design Cloud, and will take place for 10 days and will cover not only design, but fashion and upcycling as well.

From Sept. 17 to 26, the Seoul Design Cloud will be held in various places throughout the capital including the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, in central Seoul, featuring a wide range of events such as exhibitions, conferences, markets, fashion shows and workshops.

Each field includes its own batch of events, beginning with the “Human City Design Conference” taking place on the opening day to kick off the Seoul Design Week program.

Each respective field - design, fashion and upcycling - will have its own set of events that are different from the previous design week events or the Hera Seoul Fashion Week, which will be held in October.

The opening conference will include prominent figures including Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and the head curator of New York’s Museum Of Modern Art Paola Antonelli, who will discuss the major issues in the design world.

A conference on upcycling will follow the next day on Sept. 18, and a fashion forum and talk show are set to take place on Sept. 19.

The idea of the cloud comes as an effort by the Seoul Design Foundation to facilitate more conversations and activity revolving around the field of design, and the diverse programs on the itinerary serve as the means to expand understanding of each field.

The schedule of events that will be held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza includes a fashion show of outfits inspired by hanbok (traditional Korean dress) made by university students on Sept. 23, craft and fashion markets that will run everyday from Sept. 17 to 23 and the upcycyling festival held at the Seoul Upcycling Plaza in central Seoul from Sept. 17 to 26.

“When I took the post as the president of the Seoul Design Foundation in April, I thought about the role of the foundation and what it could do in this era,” said Choi Kyung-ran, president of the Seoul Design Foundation.

“With this event, we hope to show what the foundation can do in the future, and what it could do for not just design, but the people of Seoul.”

The Seoul Design Cloud will be held every year instead of the design week event starting this fall. Details can be found at www.seouldesigncloud.or.kr.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]