Seoul is one of the most populous cities of Asia, with a metropolitan area that is home to approximately 25 million people or almost half the population of South Korea. The country’s belated urbanisation process only began in the second half of the twentieth century. Once started, it happened extremely fast and accompanied by rapid economic development. However, these changes also had negative social effects, including high pollution levels and the destruction of many historic and cultural resources.

In recent decades, with increasing awareness about sustainability and the climate crisis, the city has successfully implemented strategies of sustainable urban development and urban regeneration policies, including a major green agenda in which public space plays a crucial role.

Accordingly, the European Prize for Urban Public Space has established contact with the Department of Urban Environmental Studies at the Seoul National University with the aim of exchanging experiences and exploring future possible joint projects with the university and other institutions in Seoul. The director of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, Elisabet Goula, presented it to lecturers and students in the Department of Urban Environmental Studies and also to researchers from the government’s Architecture and Urbanism Research Institute in the city of Sejong, the administrative capital of South Korea. She also met with staff members of the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture, a public institution that is devoted to architecture and the city, in order to study the possibility of holding a joint exhibition linking the experience of the European Prize for Urban Public Space and South Korea’s work in this area.