Forming a Pan-Government Council to Improve Design of 3rd Phase New Towns and Various Public Buildings

A bird's-eye view of the specialized district plan for "CO-LIVING PLATFORM: A Coexistence City of Mutual Growth and Symbiosis," selected as the best work in the Hanam Gyosan District through the "3rd New Town Basic Concept and Three-Dimensional Urban Space Planning Competition" by the Gyeonggando City Design Architectural Office Consortium (Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The National Architecture Policy Committee and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 9th that they held the 3rd plenary meeting of the 'Government-wide Council for Public Architecture Design Improvement' and reviewed and finalized the 'Major Achievements and Tasks of Public Architecture Design Improvement.'

Since the launch of the government-wide council in April last year, when the 'Public Architecture Design Improvement Plan' was discussed, various agencies have participated together for about ten months to discuss specific institutional improvement measures to create beautiful and convenient public architecture and spatial environments. In particular, three working subcommittees on ▲New Town Development ▲Regional Development ▲Public Architecture System were formed to conduct discussions, resulting in achievements such as the application of integrated urban architecture plans for the 3rd phase new towns, the spread of general and public architects, and the proposal of the 'Public Architecture Special Act.'

In the field of new town development, the application of the 'Urban Architecture Integrated Plan' was confirmed for the 3rd phase new towns, the 6 living zones of the Administrative City, and the Saemangeum waterfront city. This means that a three-dimensional urban master plan encompassing urban planning, architecture, and facilities will be established from the planning stage of the city. Currently, master plan competition proposals have been selected for seven locations among the 3rd phase new towns, including Namyangju Wangsuk, Hanam Gyosan, and Incheon Gyeyang.

In the regional development sector, pilot projects for design improvement were promoted for regional development projects such as educational facility design improvement, urban regeneration New Deal, general agricultural, mountainous, and fishing village development, and Fishing Village New Deal 300, as well as for social overhead capital (SOC) design improvements. For each of these projects, general and public architects, who are private experts in the architectural field, participated from the implementation stage to systematically manage public architecture design. In particular, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's urban regeneration New Deal project mandates the designation of public architects in all districts, with a total of 100 public architects currently active.

Additionally, the selection process for design proposals was expanded and implemented through design competitions rather than price-centered bidding to ensure good design quality. Currently, the Ministry of Education is conducting an international design competition for a school architecture design pilot project targeting a special school affiliated with Kongju National University. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries also established a community-based spatial environment master plan in January for eight leading sites of the Fishing Village New Deal 300 project and plans to expand and apply design improvement procedures such as design competitions to other project sites.

In the public architecture system sector, a special public architecture bill was proposed to ensure that all public architecture projects follow systematic work procedures such as architectural planning, operation of public architecture review committees, and design commissioning, aiming for design improvements without blind spots. In the design competition review process, the career requirements for judges were strengthened, and a 'one-strike-out system' was introduced, which disqualifies all public architecture design competition judges in case of misconduct related to the review.

The National Architecture Policy Committee and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plan to continue efforts to enable the public to fully experience the achievements of public architecture design improvements through close support such as training for responsible personnel and on-site consulting for excellent cases. In addition, they plan to complete the enactment of the 'Public Architecture Special Act' within the year to rapidly expand the pilot project achievements to all public architecture projects and establish legal grounds for this.

Seung Hyo-sang, chairman of the National Architecture Policy Committee, said, "Since the launch of the government-wide council, various ministries have joined forces to actively promote changing the overall system related to the planning and design of architecture and cities in Korea," adding, "It is very important to transform the systems for architectural production and management across society into more advanced methods."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.