Yongin City Hosts 'Cultural City Yongin International Forum'

Mayor Sang-il Lee "Pursuing Improvement of Citizens' Quality of Life in All Areas"
Catherine Gyal, Chaire ETI Director "Yongin Cultural City Has Excellent Conditions"

On the 21st, Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 22nd that it held the '2023 Cultural City Yongin International Forum' at the Yongin Cultural Center International Conference Room.

Under the theme of 'Sustainable Regional Development? The Possibility of the 15-Minute City,' the forum was attended by Yongin Mayor Lee Sang-il, Catherine Gall, director of 'Chaire ETI,' a research institute under Sorbonne University in France, Kim Ki-ho, professor emeritus at the University of Seoul, Seo Eung-gyo, director of the Big Data Information Center at Dankook University, Kim Si-beom, professor at the Graduate School of Korean Cultural Industry at Andong National University, and Song Hye-seung, associate research fellow at the Yongin City Research Institute.

On the 21st, Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin, delivered a greeting at the '2023 Cultural City Yongin International Forum' held at the Yongin Cultural Center.
[Photo by Yongin City]

In his greeting, Mayor Lee said, "Yongin is a city expected to establish a superb ecosystem for the semiconductor industry and secure competitiveness as a world-class city," adding, "One of the ways to improve the quality of life in all fields is through becoming a cultural city."

Director Gall delivered a keynote speech titled 'Implementation Measures for the 15-Minute City,' introducing major European cities such as those in France and Denmark, and expressed opinions on how to develop cultural cities. Chaire ETI, where Gall works, is an institution that researches urban planning based on the concept that the time for citizens to access necessary facilities within a city should be limited to within 15 minutes (30 minutes in low-density areas) to enhance citizens' happiness, education, and welfare benefits.

Gall emphasized, "Cities have been planned centered around vehicles, but now urban planning with a human-centered philosophy is necessary," and added, "The concept of 15 minutes is merely a physical measurement unit; fundamentally, it is important to create an environment within the city where citizens can easily access facilities and live comfortably."

He continued, "It is difficult to create new downtown areas in Europe, but Yongin seems to be opening many possibilities for new town development." He evaluated, "Having visited several cities in South Korea, I felt many things. In particular, Yongin, where a new downtown is being developed, has excellent conditions to develop as a cultural city."

Before the forum, Director Gall and Mayor Lee also discussed cooperation measures between the two cities to realize the 15-minute city.

At the forum, Professor Emeritus Kim Ki-ho, Director Seo Eung-gyo, Professor Kim Si-beom, Associate Research Fellow Song Hye-seung, and Director Gall held a dialogue under the theme 'Exploring Directions for a Yongin-type 15-Minute City.'

Chaire ETI designer Han Seung-hoon also conducted a workshop on the theme 'Imagining the 15-Minute City with a Virtual Persona' at the event.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.