By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

How will cities take up the emerging issue of design innovation?

At the WDC World Design Cities Summit held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul Tuesday, civic leaders from Torino in Italy, Seoul and Beijing shared their retrospectives, achievements and visions of design capitals.

When the old city of Torino chose to concentrate on design in 1995, after its key automotive industry declined, the city officials had little to look up to. However, in just 13 years, the city became the first "World Design Capital" and became the object of observation by its successor Seoul.

"We set out a town master plan redeveloping a total of 1.25 million square meter real estate into a business complex, green fields and others. We are still cooperating with world-class architects in spreading aesthetics and convenience through design," Sergio Chiamparino, mayor of Torino, said.

Chiarmparino noted that it wasn't a grand start. "Many things had to change― from the way people wait for buses at stations to the way they queue up. We are still changing, mostly in the quality of life," he said. "Now, we have gained enrichment of the international event schedules, models of urban public and private networking, and economic benefits to local companies."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon admitted that adapting design to city administration was a challenge. "By redesigning the face of a city, some of our role models manage to rake up 12 percent of their annual income from the tourism sector. Seoul yet sees 1 percent, but once some of the most innovative projects are over, we could see a promising future," he said.

He introduced Dongdaemun Design Plaza construction, Han River streamlining plan, Mt. Nam's pathway establishment and many other ongoing design projects as the administration's efforts.

"We are seeing progress all ready: Small- and mid-sized companies have seen about a 50 percent rise in sales after adapting the design philosophy and Seoul's overall domestic design market is expected to mark 10 trillion won in the nearest future," he said.

"Seoul is enjoying being the World Design Capital 2012 and is holding relevant events once a month. I think design could be the next export item."

Beijing, which is seeking to become the World Design Capital for 2014, has a blueprint of mixing its thousands of years of historical and cultural assets with the future.

"We intend to pay more attention to integrate design into agriculture, modern manufacturing and traditional industry, thereby, to elevate their added value. We will try to make full use of design in adjusting industrial structure and upgrading traditional industries to create new supply and demand," Dai Wei, vice secretary-general of Beijing, said.

"At present, there are 20,000 design institutions and companies, 250,000 designers, 122 universities with a design major and 30,000 design students. Beijing has recognized 21 cultural and creative zones, and plans to build 30 cultural and creative zones," he said. "Beijing will become a culturally enriched, technology-empowered and environmentally-friendly city," he said.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr