Cultural Facility in Gwangyang Transforms Industrial Steel Heritage into an Open Civic and Cultural Platform

COMO, CO, ITALY, August 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The A' Design Award has announced Park1538 Gwangyang by Unsangdong Architects and Posco A&C as a Platinum winner within the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category. The A' Design Award is one of the world's most respected design recognitions, organized through an international and juried evaluation process that highlights notable contributions to the field of architectural design. This Platinum distinction acknowledges Park1538 Gwangyang as an outstanding example of good design that thoughtfully reinterprets industrial identity. The recognition positions the work among carefully reviewed projects that demonstrate considered innovation. It reflects the dedication of the design team to advancing meaningful architecture rooted in place and purpose.

The A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award holds relevance for the wider architecture industry, as it draws attention to projects that respond to evolving needs around cultural reuse and public engagement. Park1538 Gwangyang demonstrates how production-oriented industrial sites can be reconsidered as accessible civic spaces, a concern increasingly shared across the profession. The project aligns with contemporary practices that integrate structure, facade, and circulation into a unified system. For users and communities, the design offers an inviting cultural destination that connects industry, landscape, and people. For the industry, it provides a reference for combining structural experimentation with environmental and social awareness.

Located in a city shaped by steel production, Park1538 Gwangyang transforms industrial identity into cultural value, serving as a public platform that introduces visitors to the material, process, and history of steelmaking. While steel is commonly perceived as rigid and heavy, the design reveals its latent flexibility, redefining it as a spatial and formal principle. A cantilevered exhibition hall creates an open plaza below, while ramps and vertical ribs guide movement through layered spaces. Drawing inspiration from the name Gwangyang, which means sunlight, sweeping curved surfaces reflect and refract light throughout the day. The landscape reconfigures the flat industrial ground into planted mounds, embedding former machinery as sculptural artifacts.

This Platinum A' Design Award recognition may inform future directions for Unsangdong Architects and Posco A&C, encouraging continued exploration of adaptive reuse and material innovation. The project illustrates how parametric coordination between structure and envelope can achieve long spans while maintaining architectural clarity. The success of Park1538 Gwangyang offers a foundation for further research into integrated design coordination and sustainable transformation of industrial heritage. The recognition serves as encouragement for the team to pursue ongoing excellence in architecture that reconnects industry, landscape, and community.

Project Members
Park1538 Gwangyang was designed by Unsangdong Architects and Posco A&C, with lead architects Yoongyoo Jang, Changhoon Shin, Mijung Kim, and Dongkeun Kim guiding the overall vision and direction. The architectural team included Minkyun Kim, Eunsol Ko, Siyoung Lee, Nahee Kwon, Moonhwan Kim, Hee Cho, Seongmook Lim, Seho Ahn, Kyungmo Kim, and Bosung Park, who contributed to design development, structural coordination, and detailing throughout the project.

Interested parties may learn more about the award-winning design, its features, and the team behind it at the dedicated page on the A' Design Award website.
https://competition.adesignaward.com/ada-winner-design.php?ID=182064

About Unsangdong Architects and Posco A&C
UnSangDong Architects is an experimental group organized to realize conceptual architecture with variable possibilities of cultural contents, with research and projects based on the diversity of architecture. In 2007, Unsangdong Architects received the AR Awards from Architectural Review, and in 2006 it received the Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, granted to innovative architects worldwide. As the first lecturer among Korean architects, Unsangdong Architects gave a lecture for RIBA in 2008, where Jang introduced the idea of the space coordinator. Based in the Republic of Korea, the studio has presented experimental works including the Ssamzie Project and exhibitions at the Seoul Museum of Art.

About Posco
Posco is a leading South Korean multinational steel-making company headquartered in Pohang, founded in 1968. As a top-tier global producer, it specializes in steel, eco-friendly infrastructure, and future materials, including secondary battery materials.

About the Platinum A' Design Award Recognition
The Platinum A' Design Award is the highest distinction granted by the A' Design Awards, awarded to works that combine notable innovation with meaningful societal contributions. Selected through a rigorous evaluation process, recognized designs demonstrate considered artistic and technical proficiency alongside a commitment to advancing art, science, design, and technology. In the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category, entries are assessed against criteria including innovative use of space, structural integrity, aesthetic appeal, environmental impact, functional efficiency, material selection, technological integration, and social relevance. Additional considerations include cultural sensitivity, economic viability, design originality, user comfort, energy efficiency, use of natural light, spatial harmony, safety measures, accessibility, resilience to weather, and integration with surroundings. This recognition reflects highly regarded work that contributes concrete value to its field and community.

About A' Design Award
The A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award is a highly esteemed competition that welcomes a wide range of participants, including architects, engineering firms, construction companies, and influential brands across the architecture and design industries. Entries are blind peer-reviewed and voted on pre-established evaluation criteria by an international jury panel of design professionals, architecture industry experts, journalists, and academics. Organized since 2008 and now in its 18th year, the A' Design Award is an international and juried competition held across all industries, with participation open to entries from all countries. The ultimate aim of the A' Design Award is to recognize and promote superior projects that advance and benefit society, driven by a philanthropic mission to help create a better world through the power of good design. Interested parties may learn more about the A' Design Awards, explore jury members, view past laureates, and take part with their projects at the following url: https://architecturedesignaward.com

Makpal Bayetova
A' DESIGN AWARD & COMPETITION SRL
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