You all probably know by now that our Department of Industrial Design is incredibly active in international exchange programs—but today, I want to share a special story from our workshop with students from Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan!
It was a week filled with collaboration, culture, creativity, and connections that crossed both language and borders. Let me walk you through what made this experience so meaningful!
The workshop between the Department of Industrial Design at Kookmin University and Shibaura Institute of Technology has been continuously held since 2016.
It is divided into summer and winter sessions—during the summer, Shibaura students visit KMU in Seoul, and in the winter, KMU students travel to Tokyo to collaborate with Shibaura students.
This year’s KMU-SIT Green Design Summer Workshop brought together 30 students from KMU and 30 students from SIT, totaling 60 participants. Students from both universities were mixed into 10 teams, working together to explore and develop creative solutions under the theme of Green Design.
It was a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas across cultures, collaborate on a shared project, and build meaningful connections through design.
Before diving into the main design project, we started with a team lunch to help everyone get to know their teammates better.
We shared stories about our majors, our universities, and the areas of design we’re personally interested in. At first, things felt a little awkward—but as soon as we started talking about design, our common passion, the atmosphere quickly became more relaxed and friendly.
The Shibaura students introduced us to Japan’s current design trends and the kinds of projects they work on at school, which was really fascinating. In return, we shared insights about Korean design culture, and the conversation naturally turned into a fun and engaging cultural exchange.
The project was led by Professor Emmanuel, who guided us through the overall process.
Before we began our team meetings, he gave an inspiring lecture on what Green Design really means and how we could approach it systematically.
One particularly memorable part of his lecture was the 10R checklist methodology:
Refuse, Reduce, Redesign, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover.
It gave us a structured framework for sustainable design thinking.
He explained each step with real-world examples, which made it easy to understand and directly applicable to our own projects.
After the lecture, it became much easier to talk with our teammates and set a clear design direction using this method.
Once the lecture ended, we moved into the main team meetings.
Everyone shared their ideas, exchanged feedback, and gradually shaped the design together.
Hearing perspectives from students at another university was genuinely exciting.
We discovered how our ways of thinking were similar, yet different—especially when discussing environmental issues and possible solutions.
It was refreshing to notice cultural differences between Korea and Japan in how sustainability is approached.
Even with limited time, each team pushed themselves to finalize their concepts and prepare for a short presentation.
It was truly impressive to see how many creative and well-thought-out ideas emerged in such a short span.
During the final presentation, each team had one minute to introduce their project.
Even though we spoke different languages, we could clearly understand each other's ideas through design sketches and prototypes.
One team proposed furniture made from recycled materials,
while another introduced an eco-friendly packaging solution.
Every team took a unique approach to tackle green design challenges—and it was amazing to see so much diversity and originality.
After the presentations wrapped up, we all headed to Myeongnyun Jinsagalbi for a group dinner to celebrate the end of the workshop and share memories together.
It was a great opportunity to hear even more about Japanese culture, and it made for a really warm and meaningful conclusion to the experience.
A few days after the workshop ended, a booklet compiling all of our project outcomes was distributed.
It was so nice to be able to take a closer look at the other teams’ work, especially the ones we couldn’t fully explore during the short presentation time.
Seeing our own team’s project printed in the booklet gave us a real sense of pride.
With all the creative ideas compiled into one volume, it felt like flipping through a mini design exhibition.
It’s definitely something I’ll treasure as a reminder of such a special experience.
Although the workshop lasted only a single day, it was an incredibly valuable experience—working side by side with students from another country and university, building friendships, and creating meaningful outcomes together.
More than anything, I realized that despite differences in language and culture, we could communicate through the shared language of design.
If you missed out on this summer’s workshop, I highly recommend applying for the winter session!
During the winter workshop, KMU students will travel to Japan and get the chance to experience Shibaura Institute of Technology’s campus firsthand—
which makes it an even more unique and memorable opportunity!
