World-renowned industrial designer Ron Arad will take part in the upcoming Jikji Korea festival by designing a temporary structure for the event, the event's organizer, Cheongju city government, said Thursday.

"Arad will design the 'Jikji Pavilion,' which is 12 meters high and 64 square meters, to be set up at the square of the Cheongju Arts Center, the venue for the Jikji festival," a city official said.

Hailing from Israel and now residing in Britain, the designer received the Royal Designer for Industry, one of the world's most honorable awards for designers, from the British Royal Society of Arts in 2002, and once taught at the RCA. 

The pavilion capable of accommodating some 30 people is part of a themed exhibition of the festival set for Sept. 1-8 in Cheongju, 137 kilometers south of Seoul, and will be used as a space for various cultural lectures, the official said.

The structure will be shaped like the Jikji book placed face down, and made of iron, wood and paper, he said.

Printed at the city's Heungdeok Temple in 1377 during Korea's Goryeo Dynasty, Jikji is a Buddhist book on great Buddhist priests' Zen teachings. Its full name is "Buljo Jikji Simche Yojeol,"

UNESCO confirmed Jikji as the world's oldest metal-printed book in 2001, and included it in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme that year.  (Yonhap)