At Design Factory Korea (DFK), the best learning happens on real ground. This semester, that ground was Incheon. In the Techno-Art Capstone Project at Yonsei University's Underwood International College (UIC) — led by Professor Kiheon Lee, Bokyung Lee, and Jinyoung Song, run with DFK and in partnership with Incheon Metropolitan City — more than twenty international student teams spent a semester tackling real challenges facing the city.

The capstone was organized around three challenge tracks, letting each team choose the problem that spoke to them:

1. Regenerating the Jemulpo old town — Incheon's historic city center
2. Activating Incheon's hidden islands
3. Easing labor–management tensions between workers and workplaces

Whichever track they chose, every team followed the full design process — from field research and a defined problem to prototypes, user testing, a refined solution, and a business model — the hands-on, problem-based method that defines DFK.

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Track 01 — Regenerating the Jemulpo old town

The largest track took on the regeneration of Jemulpo and Incheon's historic old town — the Open Port district, the second-hand bookstore alley of Baedari, and the working waterfront of piers and fish markets. Teams redesigned wayfinding and landmark systems for the Open Port, reimagined Yeonan Pier as a youth-friendly destination, revived the overlooked Manseok–Hwasu coastal path, and rebranded a tourism-dependent seaside economy — each asking how to renew a historic core without erasing what makes it special.

Track 02 — Activating Incheon's hidden islands

A second track looked offshore, to Incheon's lesser-known islands — Sindo, Sido, Modo, and Deokjeok — places often passed through but rarely stayed in. Teams turned airport layovers into island day-trips, created playful island branding and trail companions, and designed slower, more sustainable ways to experience the archipelago.

Track 03 — Easing the divide between workers and workplaces

The third track tackled a very different kind of divide: the tension between workers and employers. Teams designed a peer-network service connecting E-9 migrant workers across nationalities and industries, tools to help foreign workers safely raise issues at work, and other services aimed at building trust and understanding on both sides of the workplace.

Showcased at the Gala Night

The semester came to a close with a Gala Night, where every team exhibited its final project — from Open Port wayfinding systems and island branding to services for migrant workers. It was a chance to share a full semester of work with faculty, partners from Incheon, and the wider DFK community, and to see three very different challenges answered under one roof.

From a historic port to its outer islands to the people who keep the city running, these teams showed that real-world problem-solving means listening first and designing second. That patient, human-centered approach is exactly the kind of future innovation DFK exists to make possible.

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Techno-Art Capstone Project · Yonsei University UIC × Incheon Metropolitan City · Spring 2026