Jeju Kim Young-su Library Wins Grand Prize at 2020 Korea Public Architecture Awards

Buk Elementary School Library, Former Official Residence, and Warehouse Reborn Through Urban Regeneration Project

Highly Praised for Village Development and Revitalization of Old Downtown Through Administration, School, and Resident Collaboration

Inside Kim Young-su Library at Jeju Buk Elementary School. Photo by Jeju Provincial Government

[Jeju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Chang-won] In the '2020 Korea Public Architecture Awards' organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Kim Young-su Library at Jeju Buk Elementary School won the Prime Minister's Award, the grand prize.

The Korea Public Architecture Awards are given to institutions that have provided high-quality public services to local residents and promoted high-quality public buildings to improve the level of public architecture.

After the call for entries from June 2 to July 10, the final decision was made following the first document screening and the second on-site evaluation.

The Kim Young-su Library is a space created as part of the urban regeneration project in the original downtown area of Jeju City, with a project cost of 900 million KRW (450 million KRW from the national government and 450 million KRW from the provincial government).

In 2018, the library of Jeju Buk Elementary School and the old official residence and warehouse, which were idle spaces, were remodeled to be reborn as a village children's library shared by the school and the local community.

The two-story building, with an area of 365㎡ (land area 16,148㎡), includes themed stair shelves, a book cafe, reading rooms, a Hanok-style room, a sarangbang (traditional Korean guest room), as well as a children's rest area and care spaces.

The interior center is designed in the style of a Hanok (traditional Korean house), as if visiting a tiled-roof house, impressing every visitor and being recognized as a representative landmark of the original downtown area.

To preserve the beauty of traditional Hanok, local architects searched the mainland for old timber, and a master carpenter (Daemokjang, a woodworking master who builds large structures) who participated in the restoration of Gyeongbokgung Palace was difficultly recruited to construct the framework.

The Jangryangmun (ridge beam inscription) is densely filled with the hopes of children, and a program where children attach hanji (traditional Korean paper) to windows with their small hands was operated to embody the meaning of community participation.

To this end, since April 2017, Jeju Province has built a cooperative governance with the Jeju Provincial Office of Education (Buk Elementary School) and local residents to create the school library as a village education community jointly used by youth, parents, and local residents.

The operation is entrusted to the 'Friends of Kim Young-su Library,' led by library activists trained through urban regeneration resident capacity-building education, along with university students and local volunteer residents, enabling residents to directly contribute to village development.

Ko Yoon-kwon, Director of the Urban Construction Bureau of Jeju Province, said, "This award highly evaluated not only the value of the building but also the governance model involving administration, school, and residents," and added, "We will continue to strive to breathe new life into the declining original downtown area by interacting with residents as a space for culture and communication."

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