Hyundai Motor, Kia to boost partnership with RISD

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. said on Friday they strengthened their partnership with the renowned US art school, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

At Climate Week NYC, held last Wednesday in New York, Hyundai Motor and Kia introduced their partnership program with RISD and presented their vision for sustainable design.

Climate Week NYC is an annual event where corporate executives, policymakers, and civil society representatives gather to discuss future strategies for addressing climate change. 

Lee Sang-yeop, global design manager of Hyundai Genesis, participated in a panel discussion where he explained the collaborative research projects and program updates undertaken with RISD.

Since 2020, Hyundai Motor and Kia have been running a program with RISD to study nature-based future design concepts regularly.

Last year, the companies developed industry-academia research ideas such as architectural structures combining reed aeration systems with the Korean Ondol system, brick materials that mimic frog skin to enhance moisture absorption, and a water filtration system modeled after spider webs under the theme of Coexisting Future Living.

For this fall semester, they will launch the Regenerative Studio, which includes biomimicry seminars and dispatch research.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com