Building Hope!… Busan City Calls for Sites for the ‘2024 HOPE with HUG Project’

Busan International Architecture Festival Organizing Committee and Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation, Remodeling

Site Selection - Local Architects' Pro Bono Design... Project Launch in June

Busan City, together with the Busan International Architecture Festival Organizing Committee (Chairman Lee Seong-ho) and the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (President Yoo Byung-tae, HUG), is recruiting project sites for this year’s ‘HOPE with HUG Project,’ which has been carried out annually.

Through the annual ‘HOPE Project,’ the city has consistently promoted space welfare projects that improve the architectural environment of aging public facilities for socially vulnerable groups by receiving construction funds and design talent donations from the local architectural community, benefiting a total of 60 sites up to last year.

This year’s project plans to intensively carry out the project on one selected site by investing 150 million KRW in construction costs along with design talent donations from local architects.

This year, one site will be selected to address local social issues, such as free meal centers, homeless shelters, and study rooms within vulnerable residential areas.

Until last year, the project targeted small-scale local children’s centers around 100㎡, shared kitchens, community laundromats, group homes, and senior centers.

However, this year, to resolve social issues, one site of approximately 300㎡ requiring assistance will be selected to ensure that Busan citizens can directly feel the effects of the project.

The recruitment target sites are aging public facilities with a total floor area of around 300㎡ operated for socially vulnerable groups.

Applications can be submitted for aging public facilities such as ▲free meal centers ▲homeless shelters for vulnerable groups, ▲study rooms within vulnerable residential areas to address educational inequality, ▲night schools, and ▲public rental housing for children leaving facilities to support their independence.

More detailed information on eligibility requirements and evaluation criteria can be found in the project announcement on the Busan City and Busan International Architecture Festival websites.

Those wishing to apply should download the application form from the Busan International Architecture Festival website by April 26, fill it out, and submit it via email. The site will be finalized through evaluation in May, and the project is scheduled to commence in June.

Kim Jong-seok, Director of the Housing and Architecture Bureau of Busan City, stated, “We plan to select sites that are socially necessary facilities but are in urgent need of help due to operational difficulties. We ask for much interest and participation in this project recruitment so that socially vulnerable groups can regain the driving force of hope.”

For further details regarding recruitment, please contact the Busan International Architecture Festival Secretariat.