MVRDV Busan Boosts is an urban research and design project by MVRDV in collaboration with the Busan International Architecture Festival, the Busan Metropolitan City, and nine universities in Busan. It views the city as a character, exploring its potential through data and the voices of the field. In Busan’s complexity―topographical extremes, spatial fragmentation, dense development, and ecological stress―the project sees both crisis and potential. Through mapping, simulations, interviews, games, and speculative design, Busan Boosts asks: What kind of city could Busan become?
A central focus of the project is that every surface in the city―walls, roofs, roads―must serve multiple ecological functions. Buildings are no longer inert x-objects; they become tools for climate resilience. A facade becomes a vertical farm, a plaza a water filter. To make this tangible, the team developed the Busan Maker―an interactive tool that visualizes how choices in mobility, energy, food, and consumption affect urban space.
The outcome is not a single masterplan but a methodology that invites participation and iteration. The project imagines Busan as a uniquely adaptive and imaginative city. It is a prototype of how to design futures―not in final form, but in rehearsal for cities that breathe, think, and care.

MVRDV