Seoul's Seocho-gu district office held the final awards ceremony for the 2026 Youth Design Camp — a competition inviting young participants to envision the future of Seocho using advanced AI technology — at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the fifth-floor conference room of the district office.
The camp was organized in line with the district's plans to develop a global AI and information and communications technology belt in the Yangjae and Naegok areas, with the aim of exploring the potential of AI-driven urban design and incorporating young people's creative ideas into city policy.
Recruitment for the competition opened in March under the theme of using AI programs to visualize a future Seocho where technology and culture converge. The call drew strong interest from young creators, with a total of 263 entries submitted — 164 in the image category and 99 in the video category.
Through a first-round expert review, the district selected 20 individuals and teams based on creativity and planning ability, then ran the design camp to determine final rankings. Participants completed training in the latest AI tools and copyright education before receiving one-on-one mentoring from AI design specialists, refining the prompts from their original submissions and strengthening their storytelling to raise the overall quality of their work.
In the final judging, the grand prize went to the video-category entry "Beyond the Subway Window, a Glimpse of Future Seocho" by Lee Ji-yun and Kwon Seol, competing as Team Bokbok. The work earned high marks for its creative portrayal of a future Seocho unfolding beyond subway windows, featuring the district's official character.
The excellence award went to "A City Where Imagination Flows, Seocho" by Bang Ji-yeon (video category), which connected the entire district through orange-toned media art to capture a vibrant nighttime cityscape. All 20 teams that participated in the design camp received awards, with four teams earning merit prizes and 14 receiving encouragement prizes.
The district plans to display the winning works — which showcase the participants' innovative AI ideas — to residents through major local digital media channels on a rolling basis, including kt HCN broadcasting, a media wall inside the district office, an outdoor display board at Seocho Arts Center, and the Yangjae AICT Excellence Enterprise Center.
Seocho-gu District Mayor Jeon Seong-su said the camp had been "a meaningful journey that showed how young people's creative ideas can grow into more polished results when they meet AI technology," adding that the district would "build a Seocho where technology and culture harmonize, using the innovative ideas proposed by our youth as a springboard."
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
