The Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 is broken into four main parts, the Seoul Design Conference, Design Competition, Design Exhibition, and Design Festival. With the theme of "Design is Air", the event sought to encompass all areas of design, including architecture, industrial design, fashion/textile design, graphic design, and more.



Speakers headlining the event include Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Ross Lovegrove, Yves Behar, Dick Powell, Kazuo Sugiyma, Richard Buchanan, Patricia Moore, Yao Ying Jia, Bruce Nussbaum, and Minsuk Cho.

Zaha Hadid and her partner Patrik Schumacher's TOTAL FLUIDITY exhibit is placed at the end of a wrapping showcase of design schools. The design schools are mostly representing the intensive programs and bright students Seoul has to offer (as well as a few U.S. schools like SVA and the University of Washington).

Although I would've loved to have participated in more of the festivities, workshops, and tours, I was able to take away the essence of what made this such a unique experience (check out one of the opening acts to get a sense of the big bang).

(See below for over 40 of our photos from the Seoul Design Olympiad 2008)





Underground, at the Jamsil subway station, architects exhibit works that helped draw in passerby viewers.


Crews were beginning to set up for the night's festivities.


Jeong-Hwa Choi's work covers the entire stadium in recycled bottles and materials. Here are some interesting facts:

• Number of objects: 1,763,360
• Total weight: 75,680 kilograms
• Workers needed to install: 3,638
• Number of Trucks: 488
• Days to install: 40
• 4 Elements represented: fire, water, air, earth




The curvaceous tent housed the design conference held from Oct. 10 - 12.



Sponsors like AutoCAD set up elaborate mini-exhibits to showcase their products.




Hanhwa was also a major sponsor.




The Seoul Design Competition showcases industrial, urban, sustainable, and graphic designs from international participants. The competition categories include Earth (environment), Water (communication in flow), Wind (experience in media city scape), and Fire (Objects in Urban Culture). You can see all of the winners here.


Energy Seed by Sungwoo Park & Sunhee Kim



DogPot Disposable Cleaner by Young-long Choi



Touch Seoul by Sang-in Chung




Stickers for TOTAL FLUIDITY lead upstairs to the special exhibit.



Front view of the special exhibition space




Culinary design is also included in the exhibitions (AVING Korea took more photos here).



These vegetables were delicately carved and placed together to create a unique composition.





Sensory Neuron concept car




Poems were written in Korean and attached to umbrellas in this conceptual piece.






Seoul National University of Technology


Keimyung Textile Design







Korea University of Technology and Education







Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 TV Spot



The Seoul Design Olympiad will be running until October 30th, 2008 and is free of charge. The Zaha Hadid + Patrik Schumacher works are in a special exhibit that will run you 9,000 won (about $7) if you happen to get a chance to check it out.