A Study on the Differences of Urban Design Concept

Between East Asia and the West

in the 21st century’s New Town
Focusing on the works of 'International Urban Ideas Competition for the
New Multi-Functional Administrative City in the Republic of Korea

Seo, Junwon Ahn, Kunhyuck

School of Civil, Urban & Geosystem Engineering, Seoul National University

San 56-1, Shinlim-9 Dong, Kwanak-Gu, Seoul, Korea
Tel: +82 (2) 880-7374 Fax: +82 (2) 889-0032
E-mail: ryeonho1@snu.ac.kr

Abstract

This research aims to present findings from differences of urban design concept and
design process in the 21st century's new city.
Before the 20th century, East Asian cities and Western cities were built based on
different urban design principles. Since an introduction of Western urban planning
and design theories to East Asian countries in the 1900's, however, same theories
of urban design have been applied to both East Asian and Western cities-especially
new-towns-now. Despite such history, there are still some differences between
Asian and Western cities in terms of city pattern and city image.
Therefore, in this research, we analyze the characteristics of design values and
design concepts, the cognition of the design problems and design solving strategy
based on the works of 'International Urban Ideas Competition for the New Multi-
functional Administrative City in the Republic of Korea'.
In the conclusions of this research, we have noted the differences of the property of
design concepts and idea and the style of cognition and reasoning between East
Asian and Western designers in spite of same site condition and programs.
Therefore, we can address that East Asian cities are different from Western cities
due to the differences in making design concepts and types of design thought.

Keywords : design culture, design concept, design process, design thought

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1. Introduction

This paper addresses the question if the difference of traditions of urban

design and styles of reasoning between East and West has an effect on the
concepts and ideas of urban planning and design. Since 1900's, western
urban design paradigms and theories have been applied to both East Asian
and Western cities. But there are still some differences of basic design
concepts between Asian and Western designers in the new-town planning.
Where do such differences stem from?

In order to answer such a question, this paper will analyze the differences of
1) the types of design strategy, 2) cognitive style of design problems and
dimension of design solutions, 2) properties of design value and design idea,
3) the types of space concept, 4) the generality and abstraction of design
principles, and 5) relationship to nature between Asian and Western
designers’ works of the 'international urban ideas competition for the new
multi-functional administrative city in the republic of Korea'.

2. Literature Review

Most scholarly works have been done on the comparative study on city form
and space concept between traditional East Asian cities and Western cities.
And these studies addressed that the common spatial structures of Asian
cities were found as below, despite of morphological differences among the
cities: 1) centralized spatial formation, 2) axial-hierarchical organization, and
3) carefully designed and oriented locations, and directions(Son, 2000.12).
On the other hands, design paradigm and principle of Western cities have
been changed by argument of philosophy of space concept and development
of transportation and communication in history.

Because of little studies on design process, however, researches on the

difference of design concept and methods between Asian and Western cities
have not much been studied. Kim(1998.11) addressed that the same verbal
design concept referring to the socio-cultural characteristics in U.S and Korea
has been represented differently and the students of U.S and Korea have
sought the design concept related to different design knowledge.

Design is a mental activity about artifacts and searching process of problem-

space(Simon, 1970, 1982), and design problem-solving activity which can be
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explained by design problem, design solution, design process(Lawson, 1990)
Design problem is an ill-defined problem(Rittel, 1973; Wade, 1977), so
designer analyzes it subjectively. Design solution arises during initial stage
and design solving types are classified into prototype-based design (finding
prototype and using its knowledge), issue-based design (answering the
design issue), constraint-based design (finding constraints and solution). They
use schema as design knowledge which can be divided into conceptual knowledge
and formal knowledge (Purcell et al, 1991). Design process is an abduction
reasoning and heuristic process.

Nisbett(2003) contends that human cognition is not identical everywhere -that

those brought up in Western and East Asian cultures think differently from
one another in scientifically measurable ways. East Asians are oriented
toward group relations and obligations, while Westerners tend to inculcate
individualism and choice. They seem to show East Asians measurably more
holistic perceptions (taking in whole scenes rather than a few stand-out
objects). Westerners have a tunnel-vision perceptual style that focuses much
more on identifying what's prominent in certain scenes and remembering it.

Design Process
Type of reasoning

Design Problem Design Solution

Perception and recognition Concept/Idea/Value
(Prototype/Issue/Constraints)

Schema
Design knowledge
- Design paradigm
(Conceptual/Formal)
- Space concept

<Figure 1 Design Process Model>

3. Hypothesis
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This paper presumes that different tradition of urban design, space concept,
and style of perception and cognition between East Asian and Western
culture will make difference of design concept in contemporary urban design.
Hypotheses of the research are these:

1) The types of design strategy: East Asians will seek design concepts
related to the value or ideology of design prototype (prototype-based design),
while Westerners will seek design concepts related to design issues (issue-
based design)
2) Cognitive style of design problems and dimension of design solution: East
Asians will take in the design problem in various viewpoints, so their design
ideas are more holistic and considered as divided viewpoints. Westerners will
focus much more on the core design problem, so their design ideas are one
main idea and not considered as divided viewpoints.
3) The types of space concept: East Asians will consider locations and
directions of center and other functions, while Westerners will consider frame
or form of the whole city.
4) The generality and abstraction of design principles: Design concept by
East Asians will be more related to the site context and social condition than
design concepts by Westerners. So, design concept by East Asians is less
general and abstract than design concept by Westerners.
5) Relationship to nature: East Asians pursue harmony or fusion between city
and nature, while Westerners want to preserve the nature in urban design.

<Table 1 Hypothesis of the research>

East Asians Westerners
Prototype-based design Issue-based design
Types of Design Strategy
Constraints-based design Constraints-based design
Cognitive Style of Design Many problems Core design problems
problems and solutions Holistic idea, Many ideas Main idea
Types of Space Concept Locations and directions Frame or Form
Generality and Abstraction of General design
Specific design
Design Principles Abstract design
Relationship to Nature Harmony or Fusion Preserve

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4. Research Methods

For analysis of the differences of urban design between East Asians and
Westerners, it is desirable to compare design works of East Asians with
design works of Westerners in the less considered geographical, social, and
technological conditions such as density of population, tradition of city
development. Therefore, this study analyzes the works of the ‘International
urban ideas competition for the new multi-functional administrative city in the
republic of Korea’ held in 2005 (open international urban ideas competition
on one-stage).

The objective of the competition was to obtain outstanding and innovative

urban design and planning concepts to present a 21st century urban
paradigm for new city which will be located Chungcheongnam-Province for
decentralization of political, economic and industrial activities in the Seoul
Metropolitan Area(SMA). It is easy to analyze design concepts and ideas
because its submission is not master-plan design but concept design.

This study analyzes selected verbal and illustrated design concept and style
of reasoning on the project description and presentation boards of 26 works
in the first day’s jury (total submitted entries are 126 works). Main subjects of
the analysis are the same: 1) the design issue and problem, 2) the number
and dimension of design problem, 3) the types of design value (theme or
form), 4) the number and property of design concept, 5) design knowledge,
6) types of reasoning.

<Table 2> Summary of Works

Number of
Countries of Works
Works
East Asians 8 Korea(5), Japan(2), Indonesia(1)
Germany(3), USA(2),
Westerners 11
Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France, Chile(1)
Collaboration 7 Korea+USA(4), Korea+France(2), USA+Korea(1)
First Tier Prizes(5), Honorable Mentions(5),
Total 26
Submitted Entries(16)

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5. Results

1) Difference of design strategy

As a result of an analysis, most works of Westerners show design issues

related to the design problem and make solutions accordingly (Issue-based
design). Firstly, they seek design issues which are design problems of
contemporary metropolis such as over-concentration of CBD, energy
problems, hierarchical city form), city development (designed by image not
structure), and the site conditions (vulnerable to 100 year flood). Then they
provided solutions through design concepts (ring-shaped city, city-wall).

On the contrary, East Asians usually intended to find the prototypes

appropriate for not only site condition but also social condition, use the
knowledge of prototypes, and create a proper design concept (Prototype-
based design). most works of East Asians do not show design issue but an
idea for new city such as Pung-su, dispersion, flexibility and so on. And they
show design concept which contemplates on design principles for the idea.
And if the representative designer of collaborate (East Asians and
Westerners jointly works) work was an East Asian, the plans usually showed
prototype-based design except Dichotomous City.

Accordingly, in logic compositions, design works of East Asians followed the

framework of ‘background→ principle suggested→ explanation on design
concepts’ (non-argumentative design strategy), while design works of
Westerners followed the logical frame of ‘issue (problem) suggested→
principle suggested for problem solving→ explanation on principle and its
points→ supplementary explanation’ (argumentative design strategy).

<Table 3> Difference of design strategy

Number of Works
Prototype Issue Constraints

East Asians 7 1
Westerners 9 2
Collaborate 5 2
Prototype means prototype-based design

Issue means issue-based design which is argumentative design strategy

Constraint mean constraints-based design

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2) Difference of cognitive of design problems and solutions

Works of Westerners show design problem(s) which can be concluded in one

or two core problem(s) in design problems, while works of East Asians
sometimes are considered diverse and entangled design problems which
cannot be concluded in one or two core problem(s). And when East Asians
and Westerners jointly work on a plan, design problems of their works can be
concluded in one or two core problem(s)

Therefore, Western designs usually attempt to create one or two main idea
on a core problem whereas East Asian designs sometimes attempt to create
many different design ideas considering diverse problems. That is, the
Westerners attempt to explain everything with a single concept but East
Asians try to consider context and each different condition to make design
concept.

<Table 4> Dimension of design problem and solution

Design Problem Design Solution
Core Diverse
Main Idea Various Idea
Problem Problems

East Asians 4 4 4 4
Westerners 9 2 11 0
Collaborate 5 2 4 3

3) Difference of design value

The property of design values shown in Western works (mobility, equality of

access, non-hierarchy) is more spatial than those in East Asian works
(heaven-earth-man, peace). And design value of East Asian’s work shows
the relationship to the nature. Also, East Asian works show design value
such as complexity, dispersion, and flexibility more frequently which mean
that they view the world in a more complicated way.

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<Table 5> Property of design value
Spatial Metaphysical

East Asians 4 4
Westerners 8 3
Collaborate 4 3

4) Difference of space concept

Western design concepts show the ideas on frame or form of city whereas
some of Asians design concepts show the ideas on the locations and
arrangement itself and the programs of location and linkage rather than
overall city form. Specifically, most Western design works show concepts on
the framework and pattern of the city as a first priority and then are
incorporated into the nature of sites, whereas some Asian design works show
the location of centers and arrangement of functions first and then outer
forms are based on the borders surrounded by mountains or hills. (However,
some East Asian works show structural concept of whole city, but in these
cases, they follow organic design which is symbolic of other objects in format
rather than geometric.)

Therefore, Western design concepts show structural idea putting together

everything and lack considerations for the location of functions or facilities.
Asian design concepts, on the contrary, consider the location and direction of
functions or facilities but lack the structural idea of whole city.

<Table 6> Property of design concept

Form Location

Oriented Oriented

East Asians 3 5
Westerners 9 2
Collaborate 3 4

5) Generality and abstraction of design principles

As a result of an analysis, Western design works find one or two core

concept(s) and make strong but abstract design concept which can be
applied to all cities so they need to modify design. On the contrary, East

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Asian design works consider diverse circumstance or context and make less
abstract but real design end product which can be (only) applied to the ‘New
City’.

In case of abstract designs, Western designs are a simplification of

compositional factors or principles of the city elements whereas Asian plans
are symbols of metaphysical ideology.

<Table 7> Generality and abstraction of design principles

Generality Abstraction
General Specific Abstract Real

Idea Idea Idea Idea

East Asians 7 1 4 4
Westerners 9 2 7 4
Collaborate 3 4 2 5

6) Difference of relationship to nature

In relationship to the nature, East Asian design works show the city within the
nature, fusion between city and nature, and harmony with nature in design
values or design concepts. Western design works show the tendency for the
preservation of nature and compensation of green spaces used for
development through off-spaces whereas Western design works consider
farmlands as foremost natural environment, not mountains or rivers and
therefore cities are not formed along with the mountain borders. East Asian
works show cities are enclosed by the mountain and follow the principle of
Bea-san-im-su(city, village or house must be located by the front river and
mountains in the back)

<Table 8> Relationship to nature

Preservation Harmony

East Asians 3 5
Westerners 10 1
Collaborate 4 3

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6. Discussions of Findings

As shown in the analysis, East Asian designers consider more diverse

factors of site condition or design problem and show diverse design concepts
accordingly than Western designers. Since East Asians have diverse
concepts which are less abstract than those of Westerners, they use and
modify the prototypes of traditional or popular urban paradigm rather than
perceive the main design problems and make conceptual ideas through
issues or conditions.

In design values, East Asians pursue metaphysical values rather than spatial
values. They make principles of locations and arrangement rather than
overall pattern or framework of the whole city and emphasize oneness of the
city which is not separated from the nature in design concept.

It means that East Asians do not intend to abstract the only one problem or
principle from the design program(brief) but take into consideration diverse
design factors because they perceive the world in a more complicated way.
They consider location and arrangement of the center and other main
functions enclosed with nature according to relative space concept because
of traditional universal viewpoint on the city, monistic and synthetic notion,
and holistic reasoning style.

In case of joint works by East Asians and Westerners, some show both East
Asian and Western qualities. Although when the designer is an East Asian, if
he or she has studied and worked in the Western country for a long time, the
work can have some Western style of logical compositions. However, even in
those cases, such work does not completely follow Western thought styles
compared to works by Westerners.

7. Conclusions

With regards to new city design concept and methods, what difference do
East Asians show compared to Westerners? Traditionally East Asian and
Western cities had different planning ideas, and city patterns. Even up to
present times when Westernization has been spread throughout the world,
East Asians and Westerners have different though processes and
perceptional styles due to different natural environment, social structure,
philosophical ideas, and educational systems.
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This research has analyzed the difference of East Asian and Western design
concepts by verbal expressions and illustrations shown in the works of
'International Urban Ideas Competition for the New Multi-functional
Administrative City in the Republic of Korea’, based on the assumption
that the tradition of East Asian city design and spatial concept, thought
processes, and perceptional styles which are different from those of the
West would have influences on the current urban design concept.

As a result of our research, East Asian designers showed differences in

phases of new urban design concept - design issue, design strategy,
diversity of design problems, spatial property of design concept, and property
of design idea - compared to Western designers. That is, East Asian
designers pursue more metaphysical idea in overall perspective of city
design process and were more interested in arrangement of and connections
between each function rather than frame or pattern of the cities.

This research goes beyond just clarifying the differences between East Asian
and Western cities; rather, it shows the difference in basic concepts.
Although there are some limits such as not being able to analyze all of 121
works, , such limits will be complemented with statistical basis in the future
research. Through this research, we wish that more thorough research on the
difference between East Asian and Western cities could be continued, and
that this research can pose as a stepping stone for East Asian designers to
accept Western design educational system while preserving that of East Asia,
as well as discussing the future Asian urbanism in the 21st century.

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Westerners Think Differently...and Why: The Free Press.

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