The incoming administration is determined to give Korea, often denounced as an aesthetically soulless country, a radical makeover. Lawmaker Maeng Hyung-kyu, who heads the presidential Transition Committee's subcommittee for planning and coordination, on Monday said the “Design Korea” project is “aimed at seeking harmony and balance in urban areas and buildings by introducing the concept of public design."
As a campaign promise by president-elect Lee Myung-bak, a man nicknamed the Bulldozer for his role in creating the concrete jungle in his days as a construction executive, the plan was called the "Designed in Korea" project. It envisages an architecture and urban design subcommittee under the State Architecture Commission, which will be launched in October, and inviting leading international architects to coordinate designs for urban spaces and buildings. As its model, the Transition Committee cited Britain's Commission for Architecture and Built Environments (CABE), an organization tasked with supervising the whole outward look of various public projects.
The team aims high. Candidates include Prof. Kim Young-sup of the Department of Architecture at Sungkyunkwan University, Prof. Seung Hyo-sang of Korea National University of Arts, the British architect Norman Foster, Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, whose buildings include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Italy’s Renzo Piano, and the Iraqi born British architect Zaha Hadid, who won the International Design Competition for the Dongdaemun World Design Park and Complex sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2007.
Maeng said the committee will establish the design committees on a trial basis before pushing major national projects, such as the construction of new towns, innovative cities, Lee’s cross-country canal project, and the Saemangeum mega project. The Committee will set up yet more committees at local government level to oversee the creation of built environments suitable to their geographical features.
As an example of the multiple tasks ahead, Maeng cited the need to mute garish city signboards. "We'll discuss this matter with municipal governments. But they seem to need refurbishment. I think new regulations will be applied to reconstructed buildings first."
Other projects flagged by the team include redesigning areas near railway stations in small and medium-sized cities, refurbishing underground shopping malls in metropolitan areas, landscaping provincial roadsides, and building nationwide bike path networks.
