Seoul to Serve as a 'K-Architecture Testbed'
Comprehensive Support Measures for the Architecture Industry to Be Announced After Meetings
The 42nd Seoul Architecture Award Grand Prize-winning work, 'CLOUD (UIA Architects & Associates)'. Seoul City
Seoul City is listening to voices from the field in order to foster architects who can excel on the global stage.
On May 14, the city announced that it would begin building up initiatives to nurture domestic architects recognized worldwide?such as winning the Pritzker Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture?and to globalize K-architecture.
To this end, Mayor Oh Sehoon will personally visit the buildings that won the 42nd Seoul Architecture Award this afternoon to hear firsthand opinions on the development of the architecture industry. The city plans to continue its 'Architecture Tour,' a relay of visits to both public and private buildings responsible for the city's urban landscape, to gather insights for the advancement of the domestic architecture industry.
Mayor Oh will first meet with architects at 'CLOUD (UIA Architects & Associates),' the Grand Prize-winning work from last year's Seoul Architecture Award, which features a new roof embracing Haebangchon, as well as at 'Gangnamgu Well Aging Center (On Design Architects),' the top prize-winning project that transformed an old parking lot.
The 42nd Seoul Architecture Award Grand Prize winner, 'Gangnamgu Well Aging Center (On Design Architects)'. Seoul City
CLOUD is a public building where the asbestos slate that once covered the sky of Haebangchon’s Sinhung Market was removed and replaced with a new roof. It is praised for revitalizing the outdated Haebangchon market by transforming the old and dark traditional market space, bringing both new vibrancy and beauty. The Gangnamgu Well Aging Center is a customized health promotion center that remodeled an existing public parking lot and completely transformed the building’s exterior. Designed under the theme of a dramatic transformation of an old parking lot, it is characterized by a systematic and dense spatial composition within a limited space.
The city stated, "Through this relay architecture tour, we will develop multifaceted support measures to enhance the value of works by domestic architects and use this as momentum to make K-architecture another hit product for Korea." The city added, "The support measures for architects and the architecture industry developed through the relay architecture tour will be announced as soon as possible."
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