Busan launches international design competition for 2028 World Design Capital pavilion

Busan city and the Busan Design Promotion Agency announced Friday they will hold the "2028 World Design Capital Busan Pavilion Design International Competition" to give spatial expression to the vision and identity of the 2028 World Design Capital designation.

The competition is open to domestic and international companies, institutions and individual businesses in relevant fields, and will proceed in two stages of open competition from October through December.

The core aim is not to create a single pavilion but to develop a design language for the World Design Capital that can travel and expand across Busan.

Rather than selecting a finished architectural plan or physical structure, organizers are seeking scalable design proposals that creatively interpret Busan's urban, maritime and cultural character and apply that interpretation across elements such as form, materials, color, graphics and signage — with the flexibility to be adapted according to location and scale.

Fixed and mobile pavilions will be linked through a single "design DNA," extending the World Design Capital experience beyond any one site to the city as a whole.

For the fixed pavilion, proposals should identify a representative location anywhere in Busan and address urban identity, accessibility, openness and connectivity with surrounding spaces. For the mobile pavilion, entrants must present adaptation and transformation scenarios for at least three settings — including urban plazas, coastal waterfronts and event venues — so that the World Design Capital identity can be sustained as the pavilion moves from place to place.

The competition runs in two stages. Stage one will evaluate conceptual proposals and select two teams, which will then spend four weeks developing their designs before a final review determines the single winning entry.

Stage one judging will focus on how well entries interpret Busan's identity as World Design Capital, design creativity and distinctiveness, the integration and coherence of the fixed and mobile pavilions, spatial and programmatic usability, and the scalability and sustainability of the design system. Stage two will take a comprehensive look at symbolism and design completeness alongside modularity, mobility and reusability, feasibility, cost-effectiveness and safety.

Applications open at 9 a.m. Friday and close at 5 p.m. on Oct. 26. Submissions are accepted online in Korean and English at wdcbusanpavilion-idc.kr.