Seoul – the soul of Asia. You can see this phrase written everywhere in the South Korean capital: on taxis, buildings, billboards. Seoul is world design capital 2010. That’s right, not Milan, not Paris – Seoul.

The South Korean capital won the title in a fair competition. The awarding body is the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) which represents around 150,000 designers from different countries.

The city’s ambitious 47-year-old mayor Oh Se Hoon is determined to change the city’s image:

“The budget of 328 billion won (roughly $US 233 million) has been allocated for improving the city’s image”.

New parks are being built, as well as special cycle paths for bicyclists. The embankments of the Han River are being made into wider, greener belts. All of this will be implemented before 2010. However, the pro-environmental changes began well before the city was awarded the title.

Cheong Gye Cheon – a clear stream with green plants and fish – has replaced one of Seoul’s busiest roads. The city government uprooted a major highway and give life to street that had been buried alive under it for almost 600 years. It’s now one of the main recreation areas in the city, attracting over 60,000 visitors per day.

“When we restored Cheong Gye Cheon we had to put some nature into the stream. It was not that natural way. It was like 100 species we put into Cheon Gye Cheon, but now in 2008 it was reported that there are more than 600 species that came back to Cheon Gye Cheon” – says Heejin Kim, the curator of the project.

The city is working not only on its green but also its technical image. It’s number one in technological design as well. A place that used to be a scrap yard is now Korea’s Silicon valley. The Digital Media City is an ultramodern business district, with not only offices, but also exhibitions, conference halls and cultural centers. Many of the newly developed digital media technologies will be tested there for their applicability to daily life. For instance: a street with a digital crosswalk, or an apartment with digital wallpapers. In fact some of these innovations are already being incorporated in the daily life. Soon waiting for a bus will not be such a problem. A person will be able to see in real time on the monitors how many minutes left before the bus arrival and check the weather and environment conditions in the city.

The city’s mayor says he wants people to say “if you want to check out the latest in design trends, go to Seoul”. And with all the changes the city is undergoing, these might not be just empty words.