ADCF, with the intention to fully utilize the regional characteristics of Busan, Korea, and Asia as the basis for its specialized research, was established with the vision of presenting new directions for the future instead of remaining within past traditions, and addressing regional and global issues and challenges by the implementation of designs.

The institute is actively researching Korean and Asian design cultures to establish a unique Korean design educational system, based on culture and arts of Korea, and Asia, and not theories and methodologies originated from the West. Through various multifarious researches, ADCF aims to secure the originality and identity of design research and education, and to present a circular model centered on research institutes that applies its researches into education, i.e., ”the liaison of research and education.”

ADCF is organized into the “Research Planning Department” that focuses on culture based design research and the “Curriculum Design Department” that develops curriculum and publishes textbooks. The “Research Planning Department” is then further divided into “Humanities Design Lab” which seeks Asian perspectives and global-based methodologies for design education, and the “Regional Culture Lab” which seeks to discover future design values from its locality. As ADCF is awarded a research endowment grants for the ‘2019 Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institution’ from Korea National Research Foundation, “Curriculum Design Department” has established a separate curriculum development team to conduct systematic research. All end results, of the research conducted by the institute are applied to design education and are also shared and exchanged throughout internal/external academic forums and publications.