Seoul City announced the winning design for the 'Songpa Creative Innovation Public Housing' design competition, conducted for sustainable and innovative future housing, on the 30th.
Bird's-eye view of the winning design for the 'Songpa Creative Innovation Public Housing' design competition. [Image provided by Seoul City]
The winning entry was a collaborative submission by 'PAC Architects (Representative: Choi Daeseong)', 'ATEC Comprehensive Architects Office (Representative: Kim Sanggil)', and 'Architects Office Garo (Representative: Kim Kijung)'.
The winning design broadly addressed issues such as the recent disconnection of apartment complexes from local communities, individual alienation within complexes, and the breakdown of communal bonds. It proposed an open layout, open alleys, and courtyards to foster a community housing culture that encourages neighborly interaction and designed a boundaryless village, which received high praise.
In particular, the pedestrian pathways starting from the ground floor without boundaries extend to the community core (central space), naturally connecting the interior of the complex. The circulation plan, continuous from the city, envisions a community complex where residents of various social strata actively communicate and share daily life, rather than merely residing in a housing space.
The judging panel commented, "The winning design is characterized by the redistribution of density through the arrangement of small-scale buildings in an archipelago form. Each building has a unique exterior, breaking away from the uniformity of typical apartments and achieving species diversity, which is a distinctive proposal. Our typical apartment complexes are like islands surrounded by fences floating in the city, but if arranged in a point pattern as in this design, the boundaries become ambiguous, creating a complex that harmonizes well with the surrounding city."
Songpa Creative Innovation Public Housing is a pilot project in the public sector under the 'Seoul City Urban and Architectural Design Innovation Plan.' Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) is investing approximately 387.7 billion KRW in total construction costs to build about 1,150 public housing units and ancillary welfare facilities on the former Seongdong Detention Center site.
In February, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the 'Urban Architectural Design Innovation Plan for Attractive Seoul,' revising regulations and administrative procedures that made it difficult to construct creatively designed buildings, establishing an institutional foundation for innovative architecture, and providing bold incentives.
The Songpa Creative Innovation Public Housing design competition is a pilot project for design innovation in the public sector, aiming to find new, sustainable, and innovative multi-family housing alternatives that will be relevant now and 100 years from now. Unlike previous competitions, it minimized restrictions on the number of units, size, and structure, and was promoted considering special architectural zones.
Meanwhile, over 100 firms registered for this design competition, submitting a total of 11 entries either individually or jointly. The city selected the final winner through two technical reviews and first and second rounds of final evaluations.
The winner is granted priority negotiation rights as the basic design contract party. SH, which oversees this public housing project, plans to sign a design contract with the winner, obtain project approval in 2024, and commence construction in 2025.
Hong Seon-gi, Director of Future Space Planning at Seoul City, stated, "This design competition selected the final winner through a more transparent and professionally enhanced evaluation system and efforts to discover design innovation proposals. We ask for continued interest in the evolution of the 'Seoul-style design competition' through various design competitions promoted by our city in the future."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
