Yongsan District Wins Presidential Award at Public Design Awards for "Living Safety Design"

Alley Problems Identified by Residents
Addressed with 21 Designs

Seoul's Yongsan District, led by Mayor Kim Gyeong-dae, has received the top award in the country's public design field for a project that identified everyday inconveniences in aging alleys together with residents and addressed them through design.

Yongsan District Mayor Kim Gyeongdae (third from right) and representatives of the Resident Participation Living Lab pose for a commemorative photo after receiving the Presidential Award at the 2026 Korea Public Design Awards ceremony on the 23rd. Photo provided by Yongsan District.

Yongsan District announced on October 26 that it had won the Presidential Award for its Hangangno-dong Living Safety Design Project at the 2026 Korea Public Design Awards ceremony, held on October 23 at Culture Station Seoul 284. At the awards, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Craft & Design Foundation, the district was recognized for identifying everyday problems through its Resident Participation Living Lab and addressing them with practical designs in collaboration with the administration, police and private companies.

The project area is an aging neighborhood densely packed with low-rise homes around 40 Hangangno 3-ga, where residential areas and shops are intermingled. Residents faced concerns about crime, along with noise, smoking, trash and pedestrian safety issues. The district reviewed residents' opinions, crime data and conditions on the ground, and developed and implemented 21 types of living safety designs.

Notable examples are the "Safe Corner," the "Owl Manners Alert" and the "Rainwater Collection Sharing Bin," which the district says it developed for the first time in the country. The Safe Corner encourages people to keep alley intersections clear, improving visibility that would otherwise be blocked by vehicles or objects left there.

The Owl Manners Alert draws attention with voice announcements and lighting when a resident presses a button or nearby noise is detected at 45 dB or higher. This allows residents to raise concerns about noise and smoking without confronting others face-to-face. The Rainwater Collection Sharing Bin connects to a storm drain to collect rainwater and filters out impurities with a mesh screen, addressing insect and odor problems in rainwater containers used for plants.

To reduce the problem of vehicles converging on narrow alleys, the district also asked major navigation service providers to apply detour routes, which were subsequently incorporated into actual routes. The Safe Corner and Owl Manners Alert have already been adopted in other areas. The district plans to systematize implementation methods for each design and its collaboration experience to lay the groundwork for wider adoption.

Mayor Kim Gyeong-dae said, "The greatest achievement of this project is that residents' small concerns led to real change, and that residents and the administration worked together to solve local problems. We will continue to listen to residents and work to ensure that public design plays a practical role in addressing everyday inconveniences and improving quality of life."

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