An annual festival aimed at raising awareness of universal design will take place later this month in the southeastern port city of Busan, its organizer said Thursday.
The Public Design Festival, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, will shed light on barrier-free design and inclusivity in designing public spaces to improve accessibility, especially for the disabled and elderly.
Under the theme of "Design for All," the second edition of the festival will hold its opening ceremony and main events in Busan, a city that actively embraces the principles of public design, according to the organizer, the Korea Craft & Design Foundation (KCDF).
The main venue will be F1963, a former wire rope factory-turned-cultural complex, where exhibitions will introduce public design examples that already exist but are often overlooked in everyday life at home, in neighborhoods, at the workplace and on public transportation.
The organizer cited safer street and pavement design, considering the walking behaviors of elderly pedestrians as an example.
While the festival is centered around Busan, exhibitions, panel discussions and many hands-on experience programs will happen across the country at 165 locations, the KCDF said.
In Seoul, Understand Avenue in Seongsu and Culture Station Seoul 284, among other places, will host a series of cultural programs, seminars and exhibitions.
"By presenting universal design examples, we will show the value and roles of public design that are already widely present in everyday life," curator Han Jeong-hee said during a press conference in Seoul.
"We would like to take a step further to share the works of public institutions that can improve public safety, accessibility and even dignity of life (by more actively embracing public design)," she said.
The main goal of the festival, she said, is to raise awareness of the importance of universal design in public spaces so that everyone can use public spaces to the greatest extent possible, with low physical effort and little adaptation or specialized design.
"Enhancing public design is, in a way, a process of solving many social issues related to the underprivileged and the disabled," she said.
The festival is set to kick off next Saturday and run until Oct. 29.
Source: Yonhap News Agency