Enclave: Pandemic Seoul 2050

CONTEXT

YEAR AND VENUE

Made for the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021

Exhibited at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza 2021.09.16-10.31

TOOL

Adobe Photoshop, Audacity, After Effects, Agile Workflows, Scrum, Video Production, Filming

SKILLS

Agile Workflows, UX Research. Personas

Concept Development, Critical Design, User Research,

In-depth Interview, Affinity Diagram

Project Overview

Enclave is a project resulted in a 45minute short movie exhibited at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

The project is an explorative investigation into social, material and mental world building, rebuilt Seoul from the ground up based upon the acceptance that a virus had evolved to limit our ways of living. Enclave showcases all of this, by rethinking everything, from what the city looks like, which rules govern our social interactions, which technological advancements exist in this world, how the political hierarchy works, how jobs are distributed and so much much more. To summarize Enclave, would be to accept that it is a futuristic and expansive conceptual playground of imaginary world building that don’t provide the answers, but instead asks the right question.

IDEATION

In Enclave, the city is divided into 6 sectors divided by massive walls, as a necessary divide to reduce the spread of the virus. Each Sector has its own culture, wealth and responsibilities that must be achieved for the city as a whole to survive.

Movement between the sectors is impossible, with the exception of the central sector 2, in which people from the various sectors can meet and interact under strict guidelines and restrictions during a designated time period each year.

Having to design not 1 society, but essentially 6 different ones and their interlinked interactions, was a massive undertaking, but equally a chance to work with conceptual personas, user journeys, value propositions and societal considerations that despite being imaginary within the world of Enclave.

The 6 Sectors of Enclave

SECTOR 1

SECTOR 2

SECTOR 3

SECTOR 4

SECTOR 5

STORY

I remember it better than most, seeing the despair in loved ones eyes as they were forcefully ripped from each other, the sorrow as freedom was ripped from our cognitive vocabulary, pain and detriment promised to be only temporary, words and promises that felt as hollow as could be. yet opposing these rules would be to oppose the mere fabric of the entity we called life, responsibility for our acts were needed, and we were the ones to pay the price, willingly or not.

It wasn’t always like this; I still recall the day the covid-19 vaccine was introduced 5 years prior, reading the headlines as scientists were crowned the unprecedented saviors of the world.

The world, OUR world, if even for just a second, felt united and victorious in eliminating the disease that had governed our life for well over 5 years.

The world returned to normal, or at least, an attempt hereof, because how could we go back, and to what? Life had changed drastically over the past 5 years, as socio-cultural norms dictating our behavior had to be remade from the ground up, yet we succeed, for the first time in years, life felt different, life felt, alive?

However peculiar that may sound. However, by the time the world finally settled and put down its guard, we were all in for a surprise that would change the fabric of life as we knew it.

The mandatory vaccine which we were promised would save us, assured would make us immune had in reality made us weaker, the antigens introduced to combat the pathogens of the covid strain had instead made the virus go dormant, allowing it to continuously mutate

and evolve. July 23rd 2025, the mutated virus made its first appearance in a live host, mimicking the symptoms of the former covid virus, left doctors, scientists and pathologists alike bewildered and afraid, didn’t we rid the world of this menace?

Before that question could even be approached, yet alone answered, cases skyrocketed out of proportion, all across the world, cases shot up in almost harmonious unison, as what could only be described, as a precisely orchestrated symphony. The world once again shut down, but this time around, to no prevail, humans were no longer in control, the virus was. Not long after, the first wall was raised in an attempt to separate the healthy from the sick, although it felt more like systematic segregation for the sake of fortunate, than an attempt to save our world.

It proved partially successful, as solitary enclaves appeared all around the world, government officials called it a temporary new way of living and asked us to cope with the acknowledgement that the virus would create the foundation from which life could manifest itself, yet it never felt like living more so than enduring, or perhaps surviving. By the time scientists had finally found a way to stop the mutation it was too late, they could not cure it, society watched in despair as two became three, three became four, and four became five. Five walls, five stages of infection, 5 separate worlds united under one shared hope for redemption, but as each wall were raised, so were our hopes of one day returning to normal ripped apart at the seams. That unforgettable day when the first wall was raised, is 20 years ago today, what was once a unified beacon of hope to one day demolish the walls and unite the world once more, has over the years dwindled to a mere ember, Now all there’s left to do is live with the consequences of our actions, in the world we created. That shouldn’t be that hard, right? The least we can do is try

MOVIE

ATLAS