Seoul Architecture Biennale “a sincere attempt to invite a bigger conversation” says Heatherwick

This year’s Seoul Architecture Biennale aims to directly engage the public rather than replicate the “echo chamber” of other architecture festivals, says the event’s general director Thomas Heatherwick in this exclusive interview.

Speaking to Dezeen ahead of the opening of the fifth Seoul Architecture Biennale today, Heatherwick explained that he wants to start a conversation with the city’s population about its architecture.

“A public conversation is so important because public conversation creates the background context that influences everyone, and we have neglected to speak to the public,” the British designer told Dezeen.

“There has been a prevailing atmosphere, or mindset, that the public are ignorant and they don’t understand, and I think that’s a very toxic way to think about society.”

“We so frequently perpetuate an echo chamber”

Heatherwick deliberately set out to create an event that was not aimed at architects and designers. Instead, he wanted to engage the public.

“I think there are now two or three hundred different creative biennales and the classic thing about the biennales is that they are for people within the industry,” he said.

“We so frequently perpetuate an echo chamber – I’m sure there are dentistry biennales and the dentists all speak to the dentists,” he continued.

“Certainly in construction, we have an industry that speaks to itself again and again and again, and there is a role for that, but what do we add by creating another one?”

“We are rubbish at having bigger public conversations”

Engaging with the city’s population was especially important, said Heatherwick, as the event is entirely funded by the city.

He saw it as an opportunity to expand the conversation about the exteriors of buildings, which has been central to his ongoing Humanise campaign.

“The thing that was very motivating is the fact that the Seoul Architecture Biennale is rare in the world of the biennales because it’s wholly funded by the city – so that really drives it forward,” said Heatherwick.

“For some reason, we are rubbish at having bigger public conversations – public communication. In the last 10 years, there have been 10,000 television programmes about cooking food and about 70 about buildings and architecture,” he continued.

“We’ve got a real failure of communication, and like food, buildings really, really influence how we all live.”

“How do you actually let citizens really know?”

Rather than the extensive programmes of many biennales with hundreds of talks, installations and shows spread across the city, the Seoul event is made up of only six elements.

The main exhibitions will take place at the city-owned Seoul Hall of Urbanism & Architecture, but to make people aware of the event, Heatherwick’s studio designed a 90-metre-long twisted wall in the centre of the city.

The Humanise Wall (shown under construction) will be the centrepiece of the biennale. Photo by THEallim

“We were aware that it [the exhibition hall] doesn’t grab your eyeballs,” said Heatherwick. “So, we were thrilled when the city agreed to give us arguably the best public space in the city, right in the middle.”

“The challenge of many city-wide creativity festivals is that actually, when you speak to a normal citizen and ask them whether they know that there is a city-wide festival of design happening, most people, other than the people in the bubble, won’t even know it’s going on,” Heatherwick continued.

“So in a busy city, how do you actually let citizens really know? You grab people’s attention.”

Wall based on design for Blackburn station

The four-storey Humanise Wall in Songhyeon Green Plaza park is covered in a combination of images of buildings that broadly demonstrate the ideals of the Humanise campaign, along with pieces commissioned for the event.

The form of the wall derives from a proposal designed by Heatherwick 26 years ago for Blackburn station in northern England.

“It might sound random, but about 26 years ago, for Blackburn station, we looked at doing an emergency wall – they needed a canopy over the exit on the emergency platform. They also needed a wind break, and wanted a piece of art,” explained Heatherwick.

“[We said] don’t do an artwork, and could we make the wind break from the canopy, so we made a single wall that twisted 180 degrees. We had this gorgeous hand carved wooden model for years, and we were thinking… one day.”

“Humanise Wall is the introduction panel”

Heatherwick sees the wall as a key element in starting a conversation with the people of Seoul. Those who want to engage further, or learn more, can read the text on the wall, or continue to the other exhibits – a line of pink dots connects the park to the main exhibition hall.

“The Humanise Wall, in a sense, is the introduction panel to give permission to for everyone to come together,” explained Heatherwick.

“It’s almost like a magazine but 16 metres high, and it becomes a a pavilion in the middle by being twisted through 180 degrees that frames a sort of performance space, or sun shelter, or rain shelter.”

“It’s also simultaneously a gateway to the bigger part of the biennale, which is a public programme.”

Beyond the twisted wall 24 smaller sections of wall (shown under construction) have been built. Photo by Yongjoon Choi

The wall itself was designed to act as a “call and response” that draws on the thinking behind the Humanise campaign, which was launched by Heatherwick in 2023 and is led by Matt Bell.

“One side of it is really setting out a point of view and inviting people in with a provocation and encouragement,” said Heatherwick. “The other side is the response – so it’s like call and response.”

Beyond the wall, there are 24 smaller sections of wall each designed by a creatives from around the world that Heatherwick describes as “like a big henge”.

According to Heatherwick, it was important that these 4.8-metre-high walls, which were designed as snippets of the outsides of buildings, had a physical presence to make them engaging to the public.

“The key thing was that if we’d done drawings of this, if we had got models, a city official and a developer would come along and go ‘great’,” he said.

“This is big enough and provocative enough and says ‘why wouldn’t we do it? It’s doable.’ So we’re trying to make the shortest jump to reality and the least space to patronise.”

“It feels like you have a duty to reach out and to welcome”

Heatherwick believes that these large pieces, rather than the typical drawings and renders, will make the overall themes easier to understand for the population of Seoul.

He hopes that this will make the event, which is free, more accessible to the public.

“I think sometimes people in our profession, in our world, will try to characterise that if something is popular in a broader public sense, it mustn’t have depth,” he said.

“I’m always trying to see whether you can span and straddle across so that there’s an invitation,” he continued. “So it feels like you have a duty to reach out and to welcome.”

Heatherwick hopes that the biennale will build on the conversations initiated by the Humanise campaign, in turn leading to higher quality architecture.

“Our biennale is a very sincere attempt, or we wouldn’t have been interested in doing it, to invite a bigger conversation, because I believe we will all benefit,” he said.

“People will be making things they care about more and we’re more likely to not want to demolish them and be better ancestors for future generations by having made things that are worth adapting and adjusting and repairing,” he continued.

“So there’s a whole arc of this that isn’t just about the immediate, it’s about the longer term.”

Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism takes place from 26 September to 18 November 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.