ByJack Neighbour
Published January 16, 2024
At a glance, you’d be hard pressed to find a period more emblematic of innovation than South Korea’s recent history. Within a generation, a country economically destabilized by war in the 1950s recovered itself into a cultural powerhouse by the dawn of the 21st century. South Korea played its ultimate cultural gamble, pumping investment not into bricks and mortar, but information technology and the fledgling pop culture industries it was enabling; pop music, fashion, cosmetics, TV and film. Hallyu has engulfed the world since, wielding the “soft power” of influence through social media and digitalism—but this is really Korean innovation in microcosm, an ideology the nation has combined with its industrial mastery to begin answering some of humanity’s greatest needs. Now South Korea’s tech-driven cities foster innovations to take the world into a brighter future, led by a new wave of free thinkers and forward-thinking brands present since the birth of modernization.
Hyundai’s progressive spirit has helped to restore and mobilize the whole nation, combining a historic pedigree in engineering (it began as an engineering and construction company in 1947) with its current thought leadership on mobility that helps improve the quality of life for those less able to move. Developed by Hyundai’s Robotics Lab, the X-ble MEX is a wearable medical device—a powered exoskeleton for the lower body—that mechanically helps people to walk. Slimmer and lighter weight than most mechanical harnesses, the X-ble MEX should benefit individuals less able to walk,whom it can liberate from the confines of a wheelchair to stand, walk, and even climb stairs for rehabilitative purposes.
Outside of human-assistance, there are Korean innovations helping to preserve the natural world and better protect the environment. Among these is Hyundai with its IONIQ Forest project. Launched in 2016, the project works with social venture partners TreePlanet and Guru E&T to plant forests around the world, conserving biodiversity and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. Using drones to identify thinned areas of forest, the project then remotely drops “seed bombs” containing fertile soil and diverse, resilient tree species. Hongcheon Forest in South Korea especially is prone to seasonal wildfire damage, so fire-resilient ash tree (either appropriately or ironically named, depending on your point of view) seeds are dropped, along with the endangered Korean fir tree and the pollen-providing black locust tree to support struggling honeybee populations. To keep the whole process eco-friendly, drones are transported and charged quickly using the “vehicle to load” technology in IONIQ electric vehicles—adapters able to draw from the car battery to power external equipment, even in very remote locations.
Examples of humanity-bettering innovation can also be found across South Korea’s urban sprawls, like Seoul’s Lotte World Tower. Along with being the tallest skyscraper in the country, Lotte is also a beacon of resource-aware futurism, using self-generated renewables to generate almost half of its energy requirements. A hydrothermal energy system pulls heat energy from the temperature difference between water from the Han River and the atmosphere (the water is either warmer or cooler than the air, depending on the time of year), lowering the building’s reliance on the national grid by around 36 percent. Lotte’s basement levels hide other renewable delights as well, including geothermal heating and cooling systems, solar and wind power generators, waste and rainwater recycling plants, and waste heat recovery systems—all contributing to make the Lotte World Tower a leading example of self-sustaining big business.
The depths of Seoul’s skyscrapers might seem like the last place you’d find a crop of fresh greens, but, thanks to South Korean tech start-up Farm8, they’re growing happily in a Seoul metro station. Created to innovate urban farming as a way of ensuring food security in the future, Metro Farm is a hydroponic nursery of more than 30 different herbs, greens, and flowers—all grown vertically. The subterranean smallholding is apparently 40 times more efficient than a traditional farm, and able to produce around 66 pounds (30 kilograms) of veg daily, used immediately by the café next door. Growing fresh produce in small, sunless places could become a real game changer as cities become more densely populated.
From business innovation to consumer, the Korean Wave is even tackling big ecological issues like plastic pollution. Globally, more than a million plastic bags end up in the trash every minute, a serious issue tackled by researcher Hwang Sung-Yeon and his team at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology. Traditional disposable bags are made of fossil fuel-derived plastics that cost the climate and take centuries to decompose, so Sung-Yeon’s team developed a new material that biodegrades in just six months. The new “bioplastic” solves the fragility problems of previous alternatives made from ingredients like corn, rice, and sugarcane by adding in stiffening elements from wood and crab shells. Doing so increases the tensile strength of the bags so much that they’re actually stronger than traditional plastic—as mighty as nylon used in parachutes and safety belts.
The technological Korean Wave has now also come full circle with the cultural force of Hallyu when Hyundai asked: If you could leave behind only one thing for your loved ones, what would it be? This question spawned the Re:Style platform, which began in 2019 to provoke thought around the circular economy as waste materials—everything from airbags to plastic bottles to old motor oil—are recrafted into fashion items designed to stimulate thought on the impact of our consumption on the environment. Since then, different designers invited to show at Re:Style have accepted the challenge to recycle old Hyundai car parts into new accessories, objects, and installations that spark conversations on how we go about leaving a beautiful planet behind us. Last year, Re:Style launched in Europe with a collaboration between Hyundai and the world-renowned designer Jeremy Scott.
From self-sustaining business buildings, to personal mobility, to food security and protection of the natural world, what began as the illustrious power of influence in Hallyu now leads the industrious might of South Korean innovation. All that’s left is the question: what’s next?
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