Seoul City Discovers Housing Environment Improvement Projects Linked to 'Small-Scale Maintenance'

22 Works Selected Through Student Contest

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 28th that it has selected a total of 22 works as awardees through a student contest for residential environment improvement linked to small-scale maintenance projects.

The contest, held since April for university students nationwide, saw participation from 368 students across 63 universities. Notably, this year’s contest was divided into three categories?site discovery, business model discovery, and idea discovery?to practically improve the residential environment in connection with small-scale maintenance projects. This was also the first time the contest was expanded to allow participation from overseas.

The city conducted expert evaluations in two rounds on 119 submitted works and selected a total of 22 awardees. The grand prize winner receives a certificate and a prize of 10 million KRW, the excellence award 5 million KRW, the merit award 3 million KRW, and the encouragement award 1 million KRW respectively.

In the site discovery category, the work titled "Urban Regeneration Model Proposal Utilizing the Residential Form of the Former Guro Industrial Complex" was selected as the grand prize winner. This work was recognized for perceiving the honeycomb-structured residential space in Garobong-dong as a historical resource and planning gradual development instead of demolition. It was also praised for proposing the business method and detailed design guidelines, making it an appropriate implementation model for improving environments in low-income residential areas such as jjokbang (tiny rooms) and honeycomb housing where environmental improvement is difficult.

In the business model discovery category, "Ttobagi, Bright Today as Well" was selected as the grand prize winner. This work was highly evaluated for proposing the village from the residents’ perspective, placing happy housing and startup support centers for youth within the residential area, and appropriately organizing the overall network by situating shared gardens and a lunchbox business headquarters nearby.

In the idea discovery category, "Yeonnam-dong Biroso, Gil Park-gil" was selected as the merit award winner.

Meanwhile, the student contest, which started in 2009 and is now in its 12th edition, has seen 1 to 2 works applied in reality each year. Among the 87 residential environment improvement project sites currently underway in Seoul, 12 are linked to this contest. For example, the team "Another Name for Sillim, Saesup," which won the encouragement award last year, participated practically in residential environment improvement this year by conducting a basic survey for gathering residents’ opinions.

Seo Seong-man, Head of the Balanced Development Headquarters of Seoul City, said, "The student contest for residential environment improvement linked to small-scale maintenance projects is a platform for sharing the interests of Seoul City, residents, and university students regarding residential areas." He added, "Since improving the residential environment of aging residential areas is urgent, we will actively accept physical, social, and economic improvement ideas linked to small-scale housing maintenance projects proposed by students and do our best to provide citizens with a better residential environment."

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