Seoul is unique. It is a place that looks toward the future with confidence and creativity - traits that many other cities lack. It is a city that is unafraid to start bold, charismatic projects, such as redesigning the city's waterfront or replacing old gray structures with green ecological spaces. At the same time, Seoul is still striving to overcome the legacy of aggressive industrialization and continuous development, working to nurture architecture that is softer, more dynamic, and ultimately, more human and emotional.

Through the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, I want to bring together people who don’t usually talk with each other and start a public conversation. I want to create an opportunity for all the citizens of Seoul to speak confidently about their city and help them realize that they don’t have to believe that architecture is something only experts should handle. Most people live most of their entire lives in buildings. While they may not have formal training in design, they possess an incredible intuition and a powerful sense of what is right and wrong.

The legacy we can then leave through this Biennale is to empower everyone to demand radically more human buildings. Without this, no change will happen. And though it may sound a bit sentimental, true sustainability also involves love. Because if people don’t love a place, it won’t be sustainable. And they will only make the effort to maintain a place if they love it. That’s why we need to talk much more about our emotional relationship with buildings.

Our real goal is to encourage everyone in Seoul to ask themselves, “what kind of city do we want to live in?“. We want to bring people together and create unexpected conversations about the buildings that surround us and our human experience of the city. In many ways, there is no more important work than this.



General Director of the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
Thomas Heatherwick