From Expo Defeat to Design Capital: Busan’s Risky Bet on Image-First Governance

Busan, South Korea — On July 21, 2025, the World Design Organization (WDO) announced that Busan would serve as the World Design Capital in 2028. The confirmation came after months of lobbying by City Hall, and two months later Mayor Park Heong-joon traveled to London to accept the designation at the Barbican Centre. In his speech, Park framed design as the key to “inclusive and innovative growth,” a message calculated to reposition Busan after the collapse of its 2030 World Expo bid.

Behind the international spotlight, the city’s own ledgers tell another story. The 2025 general budget totaled ₩16.683 trillion (about USD 12.1 billion). Within that figure, welfare, housing, and transport programs lost funding, while the Future Design Headquarters—set up to drive branding and WDC projects—saw its budget expand. A flagship “Street Design” plan was halved by the council from ₩12.5 billion to ₩5.63 billion, and the proposed ₩3.45 billion art pavilion at Igidae was removed altogether. Yet Busan committed ₩80.4 billion of public funds to a Royal Russell School campus, part of a ₩174.9 billion education project designed to open in time for the design capital year.

At the same time, population data pointed to continuing strain. Statistics Korea reported a net outflow of 3,389 residents in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 3,374 in the first quarter of 2025, with people in their twenties and thirties leaving at the highest rate. Employment gaps and housing costs remain the main drivers.

The contrast is stark: abroad, Busan is promoted as a future hub of design and innovation; at home, shrinking demographics and cuts to basic services raise doubts about whether a design-driven agenda can reach the everyday lives of its citizens.

How Mayor Park Sells a Global Vision

In September 2025, weeks after the World Design Capital announcement, Mayor Park Heong-joon flew to London. His schedule included a visit to the Royal Russell School and a meeting with Thomas Heatherwick’s design studio. City Hall announced two flagship projects from the trip: a ₩174.9 billion international school campus, with ₩80.4 billion in city support, and an expanded coastal art park at Igidae. Both are slated to open in 2028, the same year Busan hosts WDC.

The timing drew scrutiny. Park faces re-election in 2026, and opposition members questioned why overseas partnerships were highlighted just as welfare and transport programs at home were being reduced. Councilor Jeon Won-seok pointed to the 2025 budget, where average cuts to livelihood departments reached 23 percent, while the Future Design Headquarters grew more than 400 percent. “It looks less like governance and more like campaign branding,” he said.

City officials counter that global recognition is essential for Busan’s long-term competitiveness. They argue that projects like the Royal Russell School will attract international families and talent, and that design investments can reposition Busan beyond heavy industry. Supporters frame the London trip as a strategic step to secure Busan’s image as a global hub, even if the financial details remain uncertain.

Design Gets a Raise, Welfare Takes a Cut

The 2025 budget exposed the sharpest divide in Busan’s policy debate. The city’s total spending plan stood at ₩16.683 trillion (USD 12.1 billion), but the distribution of funds triggered criticism.

Welfare, housing, and transport programs absorbed cuts averaging 23 percent, according to opposition councilors. At the same time, the Future Design Headquarters saw a budget increase of more than 400 percent, and the City Hall public relations office recorded a 12 percent rise in spending. A plan to revamp the city’s streets, originally budgeted at ₩12.5 billion, was reduced to ₩5.63 billion. The Igidae art pavilion, proposed at ₩3.45 billion, was removed entirely.

Critics described the shift as evidence of misplaced priorities—branding and design at the expense of daily needs. They argued that the cuts directly affected housing subsidies, senior welfare programs, and transport discounts, while design and PR lines expanded.

City officials defended the choices as a balance between fiscal responsibility and long-term competitiveness. They stressed that despite cuts to individual programs, the administration had concentrated resources on “livelihood, economy, and safety” overall. Officials also pointed to debt reduction targets, insisting that certain reductions were unavoidable.

The numbers left a mixed picture: a city tightening core services while enlarging the budget of its design arm, with both sides claiming their figures show the real priorities of Busan’s future.

Branding Clash over Busan’s City Identity

In 2023, Busan unveiled a new city identity. Within days, civic groups accused the design of resembling the logo of a Dutch cryptocurrency company. The controversy spread quickly: critics said the city had rushed the process without broad consultation, and the resemblance raised questions about originality and legal exposure.

The project cost ₩3.4 billion, covering design, promotion, and rollout across city signage and documents. Officials denied plagiarism, citing a legal review that cleared the design of copyright violation. They argued that the new CI reflected Busan’s “global and future-oriented image,” and that the process was conducted through a professional selection committee.

Skepticism lingered. Opposition councilors demanded the release of the committee roster, minutes of deliberations, and copyright review papers. They argued that without full disclosure, the city’s branding lacked legitimacy.

The CI dispute continues to surface in political debates. For critics, it has become a shorthand for what they call “top-down branding”—a leadership eager to promote image while neglecting citizen input. The memory of that rollout colors public reaction to newer initiatives, including the World Design Capital program.

The Real Test of World Design Capital 2028

On July 21, 2025, the World Design Organization confirmed Busan as the World Design Capital for 2028. The city highlighted six priority areas: universal design, safer public spaces through CPTED, sustainable mobility, community-led projects, digital design innovation, and cultural programming.

City Hall framed the designation as proof that Busan could reinvent itself through design. Yet the official documents released so far offer little detail on execution. The plans list broad themes but do not include full project portfolios, assigned budgets, or performance indicators. Councilors asked for KPIs that connect directly to daily life—such as pedestrian accident rates, small business sales in redesigned areas, and accessibility for disabled residents—but the administration has not yet produced them.

Past World Design Capitals suggest mixed outcomes. Helsinki (2012) tied design to public procurement, embedding service design in city processes. Cape Town (2014) struggled with inequality, and projects failed to reach informal settlements. Taipei (2016) and Lille (2020) produced cultural events but left limited long-term change.

Busan’s designation secures visibility, but its impact will depend on whether projects remain event-driven or become structural reforms. The city’s challenge is to show that WDC 2028 is more than a title—that design budgets and programs can improve conditions on the ground, not just deliver another round of festivals and exhibitions.

Can Design Keep Busan’s Next Generation?

Despite the international attention surrounding WDC 2028, Busan continues to lose people. According to Statistics Korea, the city recorded a net outflow of 3,389 residents in Q4 2024 and 3,374 in Q1 2025. The largest share of departures came from people in their 20s and 30s.

The reasons are familiar: lower average starting salaries compared to Seoul, limited high-value job opportunities, and rising housing costs. A 2025 survey by the Korea Employment Information Service showed that only one in three graduates of local universities stayed in the region for their first job. Housing affordability is another factor—young renters spend a higher share of income on housing in Busan than in the capital.

Officials argue that design projects can help make the city more livable, pointing to public space upgrades and new transport accessibility programs. But critics counter that without structural improvements in wages, jobs, and housing supply, branding cannot reverse the demographic trend.

The numbers leave little room for optimism. Even as Busan prepares for global recognition in 2028, its most mobile generation continues to leave, raising doubts about who will benefit from the city’s design-driven agenda.

Streets of Ambition, Streets on Hold:

The Park administration promoted a “Street Design” plan as one of its most visible urban initiatives. The program, announced in 2023, carried a projected cost of ₩61.0 billion through 2026, intended to upgrade sidewalks, lighting, and public spaces across the city.

By the time the 2025 budget reached the council, the numbers had shifted. City Hall requested ₩12.5 billion for that year. After debate, the council approved only ₩5.63 billion, citing concerns over debt financing and weak performance measures. The cut forced the postponement or downsizing of several planned corridors.

Supporters of the program argued that better-designed streets could improve safety and revive local commerce. They pointed to pedestrian-heavy areas where design upgrades had reduced complaints and minor accidents. Opponents said the project relied on aesthetics without solid evidence of economic return, calling it another example of “image-first” planning.

The reduced allocation does not end the program but leaves its future uncertain. To secure restoration in later budgets, the administration will need to present clear before-and-after data on accidents, shop revenues, and public use—metrics that have so far remained absent from official plans.

Who Gains from Busan’s Big-Ticket Projects?

The city’s strategy to anchor Busan’s global identity in design is now concentrated on the Igidae coastline. What began with a barrier-free boardwalk designed with input from Thomas Heatherwick’s studio has expanded into a cluster of high-stakes international projects.

The Royal Russell School Busan campus, a ₩174.9 billion venture with ₩80.4 billion in city funding and the rest from private investment, is planned to open in 2028. City officials frame it as a cornerstone of “international settlement conditions” meant to attract global families and talent. Critics, however, question why public money is supporting a private foreign school when local public education struggles with declining enrollment.

Adjacent to the boardwalk, Busan has committed to building a satellite of the Centre Pompidou, approved at ₩1.083 trillion with an opening target of 2032. The deal, signed largely behind closed doors, aims to bring one of the world’s most famous modern art collections to the city. Supporters argue the project will cement Busan as an Asian cultural hub; skeptics point to projected annual operating losses of ₩7.6 billion, environmental concerns about heavy development in Igidae, and duplication of investments given Seoul’s own Pompidou partnership.

Taken together, the school, the art park, and the Pompidou project represent the most ambitious effort yet to brand Busan as a global art and design hub. Yet they also expose the same vulnerabilities that mark the broader design agenda: high upfront costs, uncertain public benefit, and long-term sustainability questions.

What Busan Hasn’t Learned After the Expo Defeat

Busan’s failed bid for the 2030 World Expo still shadows the city’s new international branding efforts. The campaign consumed billions of won in national and municipal funds, but Riyadh won the final vote in late 2023.

The aftermath triggered heated debate. Opposition lawmakers demanded a full accounting of spending, from overseas promotion contracts to lobbying costs. At the city level, council members pressed for disclosure of how much of Busan’s own budget—estimated at several hundred billion won—went into events, publicity, and overseas delegations. Critics argued that the administration treated the Expo as a political project rather than a transparent civic effort.

Mayor Park and his team have resisted framing the Expo bid as a total failure, stressing that the campaign elevated Busan’s profile. But the absence of a detailed audit has fueled doubts. The concern now is whether the same approach—large investments in global events without clear metrics—will carry over into WDC 2028.

The Expo loss has become a touchstone in political debates. Supporters of tighter fiscal oversight argue that without institutional reforms, Busan risks repeating the same cycle: high-profile projects that produce limited results at home. The lesson many council members emphasize is straightforward—transparency and accountability must come before international image.

Event-driven Governance — The Structural Inertia

Busan’s reliance on high-profile events is not new. Since the 2002 Asian Games and the 2005 APEC summit, the city has treated international gatherings as a growth strategy. The 2011 G20 finance ministers’ meeting and the failed 2030 Expo bid followed the same logic: attract global attention, secure central government funds, and leave behind visible infrastructure.

This pattern has created inertia inside City Hall. Large events generate headlines and central subsidies, while structural reforms in housing, jobs, or welfare deliver slower and less certain results. Politically, the payoff of event-driven governance is immediate, while the risks are diffused. Even when the Expo bid collapsed, officials claimed it still “raised Busan’s global profile,” softening the political cost.

World Design Capital 2028 fits the same mold. It offers international recognition without binding requirements on budgets or outcomes, making it an attractive substitute after the Expo defeat. For critics, it illustrates why the city invests in titles and symbols rather than tackling the demographic and economic pressures that continue to erode its base.

A City Branded, But Not Transformed

Busan’s designation as World Design Capital 2028 is not so much a fresh opportunity as the latest expression of Korea’s event-driven governance model. From the Asian Games to APEC, from Expo 2030 to the new design title, the city has repeatedly leaned on international bids as a substitute for structural reform. The result has been familiar: rising publicity budgets, ambitious cultural projects, and investments justified in the name of global recognition, yet with few guarantees of lasting benefit for residents.

Part of Busan’s enhanced profile abroad reflects forces far beyond City Hall. South Korea’s cultural exports, rising diplomatic weight, and national branding campaigns have elevated the country as a whole. Busan often rides this wave—its film festival, port infrastructure, and location advantage feeding into Seoul-driven narratives of “Global Korea.” But the city’s own projects, from an international school to a Pompidou branch, carry risks of duplication, environmental strain, and operating deficits without clear evidence of public return.

The tension is clear: while Korea’s star rises internationally, Busan risks overplaying its hand by mimicking the national playbook without the same resources. To make World Design Capital 2028 more than a symbolic trophy, the city must pivot from image-first investments to measurable outcomes: affordable housing, safer streets, better jobs that persuade young people to stay.

Without those corrections, Busan’s design year will shine brightly in headlines but dim quickly on the ground. With them, the city could prove that local governance can turn national prestige into lived progress—a shift from riding Korea’s global brand to building its own.