SISTER CITIES: Friendship City TURIN, ITALY

In the summer of 2005, Councilor Tom Dealessandri welcomed the then-president of Gwangju’s Biennale Foundation, Mr. Han Kap Soo, to his hometown of Turin, Italy. It was there that a new economic cooperation agreement between the two cities was to be struck. The deal would particularly focus on cross-promotion and exchange programs between the regional capitals’ respective design schools. Students at the Gwangju Design Center, which was only three years old at the time, would have the opportunity to study at the prestigious Politecnico di Torino –what more could a student of design desire?

If Turin, the first capital of modern Italy, is today known globally for anything, it is for its citizens’ industrial designs. It is the home of Fiat, the sixth-largest car company in the world and one of the most stylish. In addition, the Harmony, Tranquility and Columbus models of the International Space Station were manufactured there.

A walk around Turin suggests a historical tendency to lead in the field of engineering. The sights are breathtaking – those palazzos, those piazzas! In what city do students of architecture get to attend classes in a building equal to the beauty of the Castello del Valentino?

Of course, it is not necessary to study architecture to appreciate it, much less enroll in GIST in order to book a trip to Turin. In fact, we recommend a visit even if you have little interest in architecture. Travelers to Turin visit for a host of reasons. They attend the Cioccolatò festival to taste Turin’s original chocolate, the gianduiotto. They come to decide for themselves whether the famous Shroud of Turin, an old linen cloth, miraculously bears the image of the Holy Face of Jesus Christ.

They spend a lot of money doing these things, too. Like most of Italy, there is one drawback to visiting Turin: the city is literally twice as expensive as Gwangju. One might pity an exchange student from Gwangju without rich parents.

But then, one might also envy any student who engaged in last year’s Experientia Smart Cities workshop, for which Korean students from Gwangju, Daegu and Busan traveled to Turin in order to obtain fresh perspective on how design and art might be used to help solve problems in public spaces. Some experiences are worth the cost.