Seoul Design Week is easy to imagine as a DDP event. The 2026 edition is more useful if you start by looking beyond DDP. From October 14 to 25, the Seoul Design Road connects 150 design spots across Dongdaemun, Seongsu, Yeonhui, Seochon and Apgujeong. The city’s current guide describes a mix of design studios, brands, exhibition spaces, cultural venues and lifestyle spaces. That spread changes the logic of the event: design becomes something you encounter while moving through neighborhoods rather than only inside a convention hall. DDP still matters. The paid DDP Design Fair runs October 14-18 with 79 brands, a young-designer section and themed retail/exhibition zones. But the citywide program broadens the experience by sending visitors into areas with different design identities. Seongsu emphasizes reinterpretations of Seoulness and lifestyle, while Yeonhui includes open studios and creative workplaces. Other districts mix retail, exhibitions and local design spaces in different ways. The important caution is scale. A map with 150 spots is not a list of 150 equally essential destinations. Some places will be major programmed venues, while others may be small shops or studios with limited hours. We have not individually verified every opening time, reservation rule or foreign-language interface. For visitors, the practical approach is to choose one district first rather than trying to complete the map. A day in Seongsu or Yeonhui can combine programmed design stops with the neighborhood itself, while DDP can serve as the concentrated fair experience on another day. That makes Seoul Design Week most useful as a city-reading tool. Instead of asking only what Korean design looks like inside an exhibition, the Design Road lets visitors ask where it is made, sold, displayed and embedded in everyday neighborhoods.