Gwangju City to Fully Implement Advanced Public Architecture Design Competition Measures Starting April 4

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 3rd that it will fully implement from the 4th an advanced plan for design competitions to improve issues such as the heavy cost burden on applicants and the non-public operation of the judging committee, which have resulted in a low number of participating companies in public architecture design competitions.

The main contents of this advanced plan include ▲expansion of design competition targets ▲significant reduction of cost burden by simplifying submission documents ▲improvement of judging committee composition ▲full disclosure of judging results and establishment of a professional committee.

First, the mandatory application of design competitions for projects with design fees over 100 million KRW will be expanded to projects over 50 million KRW through deliberation by the Architectural Policy Committee to increase opportunities for local companies to participate and to encourage creative architectural planning.

Also, to reduce the cost burden on participating companies, submission of perspective drawings, which previously acted as a cost burden, will no longer be required. Submission documents will be drastically simplified from the existing 50 pages to a minimum of 7 pages within a scope that allows appropriate evaluation according to project scale, thereby reducing costs and greatly expanding participation opportunities.

The judging committee will operate a personnel pool system, limiting participation to three times within two years, composing at least 40% of judges from other regions, and activating anonymous reporting of unfair practices to further ensure fairness in design competition evaluations.

Furthermore, for transparent evaluation, the entire judging process will be recorded or audio-recorded, and judging results will be fully disclosed including judges' real names, score sheets, and reason statements. If necessary, real-time disclosure will be conducted using live broadcasting platforms such as YouTube.

To focus evaluation on creativity and technical skills of buildings, depending on the project scale and characteristics, the ordering department will separately operate professional committees in technical fields such as structure and construction, while also improving the system to allow additional expansion of professional judges in architectural design.

In addition, a design intent implementation system will be enforced to institutionally guarantee the participation of designers throughout the entire process of public building creation?from design to construction, completion, and post-management?systematically managing building design.

The city made efforts to ensure effectiveness through multiple consultations and adjustments with related organizations and academic societies such as the Architects Association, general and public architects, and relevant departments until the operational standards (draft) reflecting the advanced design competition plan were prepared.

In particular, the Gwangju Metropolitan City Architects Association (President Kang Hyun-gu) contributed significantly to preparing the operational standards (draft) by establishing a proposal for design competition improvements, continuously collecting opinions, and holding multiple consultations with related organization heads and relevant departments to achieve practical improvements in the design competition system.

The city expects that the activation of the public architecture design competition operation system through this advanced plan will lead to the construction of creative public buildings and the creation of a dignified urban space.

Kim Jae-sik, Director of the City Planning Division, said, “We expect many excellent architects to participate through this improvement of the public architecture design competition system,” and added, “We will continue to monitor the competition operation process to ensure the creation of dignified and well-designed public buildings that represent Gwangju.”

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