students redefine the human-tech synergy at hongik’s annual industrial design degree show

HONGIK UNIVERSITY’S INDUSTRIAL DESIGN DEGREE SHOW 2025

Held from November 3 to 8, 2025, the Department of Industrial Design at Seoul-based Hongik University presented its annual Graduation Exhibition under the theme ‘The Use of Uselessness: What If.’ Moving beyond conventional purpose-centered design, the exhibition serves as an open dialogue between function, emotion, and culture, challenging students to find creative value in concepts that exist beyond conventional utility.

The theme embodies a future-oriented design attitude that celebrates curiosity and imagination, encouraging graduates to break free from binary thinking. From product and mobility to spatial and interaction design, many projects leverage technologies like emotional AI and advanced robotics, reflecting Hongik’s commitment to nurturing designers who understand the evolving relationship between humans, technology, and society with both analytical thinking and creative sensitivity. Below, we dive into some of the standout concepts that showcase the creativity and technical expertise of the next generation of industrial designers.

Hongik University’s annual Industrial Design Degree Show 2025 | all images courtesy of Hongik University

EDEN BY DOHYUN PARK AND SEOKHYUN AHN

EDEN is an AI home ecosystem that moves beyond the functional convenience of standard smart homes to offer true comfort. Inspired by nature, EDEN creates an environment precisely tailored to the user’s emotions and lifestyle through personalized light and scent. By naturally harmonizing technology, EDEN creates a personal ‘Eden’ within the home, offering a next-generation experience where technology supports emotional well-being rather than just functional needs.

EDEN by Dohyun Park and Seokhyun Ahn

HALE BY HYUNBIN SEO

HALE explores how future technologies could shape the next generation of extreme sports by proposing personal flight as a new athletic domain. Beginning with the idea that people continually seek stronger, more immersive forms of thrill, HALE enables users to move freely in three-dimensional space through body-driven control. The project envisions a future where flight becomes an accessible, skill-based activity, dramatically expanding how intensity, challenge, and physical performance are experienced.

HALE by Hyunbin Seo

AETHER BY HWIGU YU

Project ‘AETHER’ is a next-generation Urban Aerial Care System designed to redefine city infrastructure. The system is anchored by a central Mothership, a floating hub buoyed by a lighter-than-air gas envelope, which drifts effortlessly above the urban canopy. Rather than just monitoring, AETHER actively interacts with the city environment through three specialized drone units dedicated to real-time data analysis, rapid emergency response, and logistics support, ensuring the safety and prosperity of its citizens.

AETHER by Hwigu Yu

SHERPA BY JAEHWAN PARK ANDJEON JAEHO

Designed for the physically and mentally demanding environment of modern cultural complex malls, Sherpa is a smart, cart-type companion. It reduces physical burden and provides timely, relevant information, adapting to varied spaces through a contextual automation system. This system shifts between autonomous and manual modes with a simple handle-tilt action, aligning the device’s functions smoothly with the user’s pace and optimizing the overall shopping experience.

Sherpa by Jaehwan Park andJeon Jaeho

ROOT BY EL JYIDI CHAIMAE, WONJEONG PARK AND SI ON LEE 

ROOT imagines a future where technology becomes the only bridge back to nearly disappeared natural environments. Redefining camping, the project features three speculative products: an AI companion robot that guides and supports emotional comfort; an AI-responsive tent that adapts to climate and mood; and an XR nature system that overlays reconstructed ecosystems onto artificial terrains. ROOT invites viewers to reconsider the bond between humanity and nature when reality and simulation converge.

ROOT by El Jyidi Chaimae, Wonjeong Park And Si On Lee

OASIS BY SIHEON SONG

OASIS is an urban green robotics platform that reimagines parks and forests in the city, overcoming their limitations to provide people with refreshing, nature-friendly moments of rest. As robots become everyday companions, spaces must adapt to coexist, transforming into unique robotics platforms that bring not only convenience but also new, restorative experiences to urban life.

OASIS by Siheon Song

HUSH BY SANGEUN PARK

HUSH is a quiet, proactive home AI designed for true rest, exploring how spatial AI can approach people gently. The system offers subtle, emotional suggestions for well-being. For example, ‘The Window’ projects its proactive AI interface like sunlight, ‘The Kettle’ uses steam mist as an AI screen to notify you as if breathing, and ‘The Light’ senses context, breathing together with the user. The space becomes a living, breathing ecosystem that nurtures rest.

HUSH by Sangeun Park

BUBBLIN BY HYUNMIN KIM

Bubblin’ is an AR-glasses service that allows people to explore Seoul instantly, guided by AI and intuitive bubble UI interactions. Designed for efficient leisure, the service eliminates the interruptions of navigation and planning. The AI surfaces highly recommended spots visited by friends or celebrities and naturally guides the user through the city, allowing them to simply move through places they feel drawn to at the moment.

Bubblin by Hyunmin Kim

SOUZ BY JAGYEONG KIM AND HANBOM JANG

SOUZ is a premium retreat brand that merges Korea’s traditional healing principles with a modern lifestyle. Rooted in the medical philosophy of So-uju (the ‘human microcosm’), SOUZ reinterprets Korea’s healing culture. The personalized retreat program focuses on three dimensions — Body, Mind, and Soul — using traditional Korean constitutional diagnosis, bathing culture, and sound therapy inspired by Pungnyu music to help every visitor rediscover their complete self.

CASA BOTÁNICA BY  JIWOON KIM

Casa Botánica is a lifestyle flagship that translates the natural inspiration and craftsmanship of LOEWE Perfumes and the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize into a continuous sensory experience. Its core concept, Raw Botanica, explores the tension between elegance and rawness. A spatial sequence inspired by the growth cycle of plants guides visitors along a linear path through scent exploration, craft displays, and F&B, inviting them to dwell in the resonance of fragrance, craft, and nature.

CASA BOTÁNICA by Jiwoon Kim

PNEUMA PROTOCOL BY JIWOO LEE AND SEONGHOON AHN

Pneuma Protocol presents a blueprint for extending human perception through the convergence of neural interfaces and robotic bodies. Facilitated by conductive-ink BCI tattoos and a crown-type device, the project envisions a future where humans and robots operate as a single Sensory–Cognitive System. This symbiotic relationship, establishing a new paradigm of co-existence, allows future human personas to act independently and explore a larger world, freed from limited physical environments.

Pneuma Protocol by Jiwoo Lee and Seonghoon Ahn

HERIT BY NAKYEONG LEE AND SEA SONG

HERIT is a discreet stay that preserves the emotional lineage between mothers and daughters. Rooted in GUCCI’s heritage, it transforms shared memories into a quiet language of style. Hidden in Florence, HERIT reveals itself through a ‘secret code’ guiding the pair into a private, timeless refuge. During their stay, the mother’s cherished pieces are reinterpreted and reborn for the daughter, reinforcing the emotional bond and carrying their meaning forward.

PORSCHE MUTANT BY TAERIN KIM

‘MUTANT’ is a car concept designed for enthusiasts in an era when full autonomous driving is the norm, preserving the pure joy of driving. It transforms like a living organism to adapt to any terrain. Normally blending in with other autonomous vehicles, MUTANT allows the user to take control and venture off-road the moment they feel the urge, providing a thrilling, self-driven experience on demand.

Porsche MUTANT by Taerin Kim

NEURAUX BY EUICHAN JEONG

NEURAUX is a fashion item that allows multi-persona users to easily transform and express their diverse selves and personalities according to circumstances. By modifying its appearance structure to suit specific conditions and situations, this single item can create a variety of ‘auras.’ NEURAUX empowers self-expression and self-realization by making fashion dynamic and responsive to the user’s inner state.

NEURAUX by Euichan Jeong

VISION NEURO BY HAESOL MA

Mercedes Vision Neuro utilizes BCI technology to dismantle and reconstruct the traditional mobility framework known as the H-point. Inspired by submarines, the design applies a cylindrical language and a low silhouette. The interior focuses on a seat system that synchronizes with the user’s posture, enabling long-distance touring while keeping the user completely secluded from the outside environment, much like a personal submarine.

HUDDLE BY HYEOKGYU JANG 

HUDDLE is an inclusive AR platform that transforms live sports into a fully accessible, multi-sensory experience for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing fans. Through real-time visuals, haptics, and gesture-based communication, it brings whistles, chants, and crowd energy to life without relying on sound. More than accessibility, HUDDLE turns every moment into shared emotion, helping every fan feel in sync, connected, and part of the arena.

Huddle by Hyeokgyu Jang

X.RT MACHINA BY JIHOON SEO

X.rt Machina is an off-roader concept that combines robotics and physical AI. The user extends their abilities and senses through the vehicle, using its robotic systems to reach places that are normally inaccessible. The concept focuses on how the machine becomes a true partner in exploration, building personal stories and experiences during the journey.

X.rt Machina by Jihoon Seo

PLOT 12: FROM MUSE TO MAKER BY HYERYEON RHA AND GYEONGSEO CHO

Plot 12 reimagines the influence of the Met Gala by relocating it to Red Hook, a once-industrial neighborhood, and shifting the focus back to creation. Instead of celebrating spectacle, the project highlights designers as makers. Through exhibition and a reinterpreted backstage-inspired environment, Plot 12 proposes a new cultural ecosystem where fashion’s power is used not for display but for community-driven revitalization, sparking long-term change for a city’s creative future.

project info: 

event: Hongik Industrial Design Degree Show 2025 | @hongik.id.degreeshow 

school: Hongik University | @hongik_university