Co-hosted by KCC, KCC Glass, and the Korean Society of Interior Architects
Student team of Lee Byung-chul, Jang Dong-hyuk, and Choi Min-sung wins Grand Prize for 'Mul-jae (Water Studio)'
The awards ceremony for the '32nd 2020 Korea Interior Architecture Competition,' co-hosted by KCC and KCC Glass together with the Korean Society of Interior Architects (KOSID), was held on September 7 at the Hongik University Daehangno Art Center.
KCC has served as the main sponsor and co-hosted the Korea Interior Architecture Competition with KOSID for 11 years since 2010, in order to discover talented and promising young people in the field of architectural design and to help them enter related fields. KCC Glass, which was spun off from KCC earlier this year, also participated as a sponsor.
This year's Korea Interior Architecture Competition was conducted over about a month, beginning with the first round of submissions in October, followed by first-round screening and second-round submissions and screening. From a total of 210 entries, first- and second-round screenings selected one Grand Prize, two Best Awards, five Excellence Awards, 19 Encouragement Awards, 28 Special Selections, and 52 Honorable Mentions. The Grand Prize team received a certificate and prize money of 6 million won, and the Best Award winners received a certificate and prize money of 3 million won, while the remaining winners each received a certificate and a set amount of prize money.
As a result of the screening, the honor of the Grand Prize went to the Konkuk University Global Campus student team of Lee Byung-chul, Jang Dong-hyuk, and Choi Min-sung, who submitted a work titled 'Mul-jae (Water Studio).' The Grand Prize-winning work presented a project that seeks to drive rice consumption by proposing rice not merely as an ingredient but as a lifestyle and a future eco-friendly resource.
Ahn Hee-young, who served as head of the judging panel for this competition, explained the key judging criteria, saying, "Entries must be faithful not only to design but also to topicality and process," and "It is important to present a direction for interior environments that change rapidly in response to external factors, and to propose solutions based on deep reflection on interior spaces."
In his congratulatory address at the event, Song Ho-cheol, head of KCC's Building Materials Sales Promotion Division, emphasized, "Amid the recent acceleration of non-face-to-face and hyper-personalized trends, paradoxically, ensuring that people are not isolated or marginalized is also an issue architects must consider," and offered words of encouragement, saying, "I hope you will become designers who create healthy urban spaces by keeping pace with change while firmly establishing lasting values."
A KCC Glass official said, "Discovering outstanding new talent who will lead Korea's interior architecture design field and supporting their growth is ultimately about promoting the long-term development of the architecture industry, and through this, building a more advanced society," adding, "We always support talented individuals who take on challenges progressively based on their expertise, and we plan to continue our talent development support programs, including various industry-academia cooperation activities."
Meanwhile, the Korea Interior Architecture Competition, now in its 32nd year, is a venue for broadening the base of interior architecture design and discovering capable and fresh designers. With a long history and tradition, it is regarded as an interior architecture design event that truly represents Korea. By providing an opportunity for talented students to realize creative ideas and be recognized with confidence as designers, it serves as a gateway for up-and-coming designers.