The 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism opened Friday with a powerful question posed by its general director, renowned English architect Thomas Heatherwick: How can Seoul, a city that experienced dramatic transformation in just a few decades, evolve into a more human-centered metropolis? This fundamental inquiry serves as the foundation for the major international exhibition, which brings together global voices to reimagine how cities can be built better for their inhabitants.
Speaking to the press Thursday at Songhyeon Green Plaza, Heatherwick stood before the centerpiece installation called the "Humanise Wall," which showcases diverse perspectives challenging conventional building practices and architectural aesthetics. "It is a manifesto for the change that needs to happen in cities, which is (asking), 'How do we make the buildings around us radically more human and more engaging for us?'" Heatherwick explained. The installation represents collaborative work from nine creative communities comprising artists, academics, activists, and architects, with a total of 82 entries submitted through an open call process.
Heatherwick drew an interesting parallel between the diverse collection of ideas and bibimbap, the traditional Korean dish where vegetables, meat, and rice are mixed together before eating, suggesting that the blend of different perspectives creates something greater than its individual parts. The "Humanise Wall" functions as what Heatherwick described as "a giant magazine extraordinarily designed to capture people's eyeballs and make them wonder what is that?" He emphasized the importance of making the exhibition visible and engaging to city residents, asking, "How would anybody know if the show was just in the Architecture Urbanism Hall in a busy city?"
Among the notable projects featured on the wall is "Our Hagwon," which critically examines how Korea's private education culture has transformed urban commercial architecture into homogenized, identity-less spaces. The project specifically reflects on hagwon, private educational institutions typically housed alongside other businesses in quickly constructed buildings that sacrifice community identity for efficiency. These structures are characteristically covered with dense advertisements on their exteriors, while opaque films block the interiors from street view, effectively disconnecting them from the surrounding urban environment.
Another significant project, "Soft Edges: Weaving the Colors of Fields and Home," presents an alternative vision for developing Seoul's outskirts by integrating traditional values with contemporary living standards. This initiative moves away from the standardized apartment designs that have become ubiquitous throughout South Korea, proposing more culturally sensitive and locally responsive architectural solutions.
The thematic exhibition extends beyond the "Humanise Wall" to include "Walls of Public Life," an area that offers various perspectives on pressing urban issues. Twenty-four teams of architects, designers, and artisans collaborated to create this pavilion. During the press tour, visitors could observe ongoing work on "Handspeak," a wall being constructed by Burkinabe artisans Bapossan Alempoua and Asseta Idogo. These craftspeople from the Kassena community of Tiebele, a small town in Burkina Faso, were working with clay using traditional hand techniques.
The "Handspeak" installation draws inspiration from the Kassena practice of painting and sculpting earthen facades, a cultural tradition that transforms homes into living canvases embodying memory, identity, and collective expression. In their homeland, these decorative walls are renewed annually after the rainy season, maintaining a continuous cycle of community artistic engagement. This project brings this African tradition to Seoul, creating cross-cultural dialogue about the role of community art in urban environments.
Heatherwick expressed ambitious hopes for the long-term impact of the biennale, stating, "My dream is that every one of the designers of these walls is commissioned to do a building in Seoul in the next five years. That would be real success." This vision suggests the exhibition's goal extends beyond temporary display to influencing actual urban development practices in the Korean capital.
The comprehensive biennale program includes three satellite exhibitions that complement the main thematic display: "City's Face: Human Beings Need Human Buildings," "From a Bird's Eye to the Human Eye," and "Emotionally Yours, Seoul." These exhibitions are distributed across multiple venues, including Songhyeon Green Plaza and the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture, ensuring broad accessibility throughout the city.
The fifth edition of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, organized by the Seoul city government under the theme "Radically More Human," will continue until November 18. The event represents a significant opportunity for Seoul to engage with international best practices in human-centered urban design while showcasing innovative approaches to creating more livable, engaging cities for the 21st century.
