Gwanak-gu Wins Space Welfare Award

Providing 'Gwanakcheong', 'Resident Rest Area', and 'Cultural Space' through Public Office Space Reorganization

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) has been honored with the Excellence Award at the ‘2020 Korea Spatial Welfare Awards’ sponsored by Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation.

Now in its second year, the ‘Korea Spatial Welfare Awards’ were established to discover hidden cases of spatial welfare implementation in basic local governments and to support the expansion of excellent spatial welfare policies.

After evaluation by a panel of judges composed of industry, academia, and expert groups, 11 outstanding basic local governments were finally selected, and an awards ceremony was held on the 25th at the Lotte Hotel Seoul.

Gwanak-gu received high praise for creating and providing various life-centered welfare spaces such as the youth cultural sharing space ‘Sillim-dong Three Room,’ reflecting the district’s characteristic of having the highest youth residence rate nationwide; ‘Nakseong Venture Valley,’ leveraging strengths in youth startup infrastructure; ‘Early Childhood Nature Learning Center,’ linked with urban forest spaces; ‘Gwanak Mother Center I-rang,’ a shared childcare and open parenting space; and ‘Happy Mama Restaurant,’ a remodeled abandoned gas pressure station used as a village community space.

Additionally, the district earned high marks for opening ‘Gwanakcheong,’ the first pledge fulfillment of the 7th local government administration, by reorganizing public office spaces to provide an open plaza where residents and the mayor communicate directly; and for offering comfortable resting spaces and diverse cultural experiences to visitors through the book caf?-style ‘Little Library Dreaming of Dragons’ and the free exhibition space ‘Gallery Gwanak.’

Mayor Park Jun-hee stated, “I am pleased that our consistent efforts to ensure more residents benefit from the use of public facilities have led to this excellent result of winning the Spatial Welfare Award,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to realize spatial welfare so that residents can enjoy a happier life in a more pleasant environment.”