Asia Pacific

Coastal cities are in crisis, as climate change and extreme weather events make flooding a frequent reality. To address that existential threat, UN-Habitat is partnering with Busan Metropolitan City and sustainable tech firm Oceanix to envision a bold, new approach: floating, flood-proof cities. In April, project partners unveiled plans for a “modular maritime neighborhood” that would extend the South Korean port city of Busan into the ocean and house up to 12,000 people. Equipped with solar power, greenhouses that expand and contract based on need, and extensive public spaces to foster a sense of community, these kinds of oceanic outposts could offer a sustainable future for coastal residents worldwide.

An allegorical look at the dehumanizing effects of capitalism, the Korean drama series Squid Game became an unexpected hit when it debuted on Netflix in September 2021, raking in 111 million viewers in the first month alone. The show’s surreal visual architecture played a starring role, with each element seemingly designed for maximum impact. The show’s smashing success is fueling global appetite for more Korean exports (entertainment and otherwise), as well as heightened interest for international content.

When South Korea search giant Naver set out to revamp its second headquarters in the city of Seongnam-si, the goal was a forward-thinking, futuristic home base for its employees—human and otherwise. Named for both its street number and what Naver considers the first year of the Industrial Revolution, 1784 was designed to accommodate Naver’s cloud-controlled fleet of 100 robots, called Rookies, that travel independently about the 36-floor building using robot-only elevators. These autonomous assistants bring Naver’s 5,000 human workers their lunches, coffee and packages, communicating via a user-friendly screen and taking orders through a smartphone-controlled interface. Designed by Samoo, the sleek new building opened in mid-2022.

Blind and low-vision sports fans can listen to a commentator’s play-by-play, but that’s an experience filtered through someone else’s perspective. To create a more equitable and immediate alternative, Australian design firm AKQA collaborated with Monash University and Tennis Australia to develop a system that translates ball movement to binaural sounds (aka 3D audio). Piloted at three Australian Open tennis matches in 2021 and deployed at 60 during this year’s tournament, Action Audio uses ball-tracking data already collected by the multiple cameras at large sporting events to create distinct audio cues that indicate ball location, velocity and type of shot. Fans with visual impairments can stream the binaural sounds online—and more than 10,000 people did so in January. And while the Australian Open was the first major sporting event to do so, it doesn’t look like it will be the last: AKQA is reportedly planning to expand the tech to other areas.

Size inclusivity may have tiptoed onto fashion week catwalks in the past, but plus-size models have typically been a minority—if they’ve been included at all. “The challenge, every season, to get even one or two models over a size 12 onto a fashion week runway is enormous,” says Chelsea Bonner, CEO of Bella Management. So the Sydney modeling agency opted for a more fashion-forward look by organizing The Curve Edit, the first-ever runway show at Australian Fashion Week dedicated exclusively to plus-size brands. As model Jess Rae King, who walked The Curve Edit, said on Instagram: “For once, I will be leaving fashion week feeling hopeful and inspired for what is to come.”

Forget the hair-raising roller coasters and adrenaline-inducing drop towers of typical theme parks. In its move from screen to real life, famed Japanese production house Studio Ghibli designed a theme park that’s fantastically immersive and decidedly nature-centric. Ghibli Park, which opened in November, will eventually span five zones inspired by Ghibli films—including buildings and artifacts from Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Totoro, plus restaurants, shops, a playground and an indoor exhibition space. As the park’s website, aligned with the project’s ethos, bluntly states: “There are no big attractions or rides in Ghibli Park. Take a stroll, feel the wind, and discover the wonders.”

Japan and the Philippines each experience roughly two dozen typhoons annually—and climate change is making such storms both stronger and more frequent. That has made wind a tough sell in the global transition to renewable energy. Japanese energy startup Challenergy aims to win over the skeptics with a wind turbine that eschews traditional windmill-style design for an upright square blade that spins horizontally around a central tower—a shift that increases the turbine’s efficiency, regardless of which way the wind blows, and allows it to remain operational even during extreme weather. In August 2021, the company installed a 10-kilowatt prototype of its Magnus tower in the Philippines, as part of Japan’s Ministry of the Environment’s Co-Innovation Project for the Creation and Dissemination of Decarbonatization Technology. And when Typhoon Kiko hit in September 2021, the company announced the turbine had made it through with no major structural problems.

In December 2021, the world’s largest toymaker announced one of its biggest—and perhaps more influential—moves to date: a US$1 billion-plus project to build a carbon-neutral factory roughly 48 kilometers (30 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City. Meeting Asia’s surging demand for Lego products with a local factory means a shorter supply chain with less carbon-belching transport. To build the new 44-hectare (109-acre) facility, Lego is partnering with industrial park developer Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park Joint Venture Co. Ltd. (VSIP). And because solar panels on the factory’s rooftop alone won’t provide enough energy, VSIP also plans to launch a nearby solar project that will help meet 100 percent of the factory’s annual energy needs.

One day soon, a steel vault in the middle of a plain in Tasmania, Australia, will quietly record every action—and inaction—the world takes to address climate change. Conceived by Australian advertising agency, Clemenger BBDO, and in collaboration with University of Tasmania researchers, Earth’s Black Box is meant to be a sort of grim time capsule. Although the vault is still being built, its hard drives began recording online climate-related conversations and data in November 2021. The box, powered by solar panels and battery storage, uses an algorithm to capture climate-focused research, news and energy consumption and temperature data. Earth’s Black Box can record 30 to 50 years worth of data and will act as a single reservoir for the story of one of the greatest challenges humanity will face.

When the Japanese government set an ambitious target to double the portion of consumer payments made digitally to 40 percent by 2025, it sparked a flurry of innovation in the country. One bleeding-edge example that could upend contactless payments: 7-Eleven launched a pilot in Tokyo to test Digi POS, holographic payment terminals developed by Toshiba. Rather than cede valuable counter space to a bulky payments screen, the point-of-sale system is embedded into the counter and projects an image of a touchscreen, which shoppers can tap without needing to touch the kiosk directly. The developers also hope the touchless screen will reduce the transmission of viruses and free up staff to focus on more valuable tasks. Launched in January, the pilot could help determine broader adoption across the country’s 30,000 7-Eleven stores—and eventually ripple far beyond Japan and even the convenience store category.