The Seoul Metropolitan Government is announced the 1st Seoul Design Competition with the theme, "Design is Air" which addresses ubiquitous and sustainable city life of the future. Seoul is changing and developing quite rapidly and the citizens of Seoul are realizing the advantages of this change through constructing new subway lines, repairing road systems, implementing a new bus line system, designing new contemporary buildings, and creating more green parks around the city. All this is being done under the motto of a "Clean and Attractive Global City." Seoul, the nation's capital, is making a tremendous effort to change its landscape from one that's plain and practical to one that is environmentally-friendly and is a convenient place to live.

Seoul is embracing the future with specific design visions and strategies to deal with anticipated global and local environmental problems. The goal of this competition is to envision the sustainable city life of the future" in support of this new vision of Seoul. By broadening the scope of the futuristic ideas through this international competition, the Seoul Metropolitan Government would like to incorporate the winning designs into their "New Visions of Seoul." The winning design will become part of a new city product, system, or environment along with several other new city projects that have just been announced such as the "Hangang (River) Renaissance Project" and the "Seoul Green Vision 21."

"Design is Air" Keywords: Sustainable, Environmentally-Friendly, Invisible Energy Flow, Alive, Ubiquitous

The Objectives of The Competition
- To identify new design opportunities for the sustainable city life
- To address the design discourse and exploration for the living design, that breathes with nature's five elements: air, water, light, wind, and earth
- To seek creative design solutions to be applied to future city design projects
- To promote young and talented designers around the world through Seoul Design Competition
- To enhance world public design awareness through promotion and exhibition of the Seoul Design Competition with creative and innovative design solutions

Judging Criteria
The international judging committee reviews the applications in Stage I and Stage II based on the following criteria: Creativity, Appropriate Technology, Sustainable Design, User Experience, Aesthetics, Market Viability & Manufacturability, Appropriateness to the theme.

Eligibility
This is an international design competition which is open to the entire design community including architects, industrial designers, graphic designers, engineers, landscape architects, urban designers, lighting designers, strategists and students. All competitors will submit their design scenarios and solutions initially for a Stage I review. Through a juried selection, competitive designs will advance to Stage II, where designers will be required to submit design panels, mock-ups, or video animation to support their design. The final evaluation will be held at the venue of the Seoul Design Exhibition Hall in Jamsil Olympic Stadium during Seoul Design Olympiad 2008.

Entries
- Category 1, Urban Environment: architecture, landscape architecture, environmental & public design
- Category 2, Visual Communication: information design, interface design, poster, typography, graphics
- Category 3, Industrial Design: transportation, communication, information service system, and producs embedded into city life
- Category 4, Others: experiential design, fashion design, total design, design strategies, and others.

Awards
Awards include Seoul design scholarships (USD 5.000 Dollars for a Grand Prize, USD 2.500 Dollars for a Gold Prize in each category, along with Silver, Bronze, Honorable Mentions, and People's Choice) as well as travel and registration to Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 where finalists' entries will be displayed and final judging occurs. Publications and media exposures are benefits for winners.

Schedule
20 March 2008: Entry requirements available for download at sdo.seoul.go.kr
10 June - 10 July 2008: Stage I: Online Entry Submission
31 July 2008: Winners are announced for Stage I
15 September 2008: Stage II: Hard copy, mockups and videos of entry materials submission
12 October 2008: Final winners are announced and invited to the SDO Award Ceremony
10 - 30 October 2008: Winners are displayed at Seoul Design Exhibition
30 October 2008: SDO Award Ceremony
20 December 2008: Publication "Seoul Design Competition 2008"