SPACE August 2025 (No. 693)
Second prize-winning proposal of Design Innovation for Traditional Market Development – Tongin Market Design Competition, ©OFFICEUNKNOWN Architects
‘Design Innovation for Traditional Market Development – Tongin Market Design Competition’ hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG), has concluded with no winning entry selected. Initially the competition aimed to create a new landmark by introducing an innovative arcade along the approximately 200m-long pedestrian corridor within Tongin Market. However, it was in the centre of the controversy due to competition guidelines that implied the demolition of the existing Tongin Market Artgate (covered in SPACE, No. 690).
During the preparation of competition guidelines, the SMG included the phrase, ‘allowing proposals to freely suggest either the preservation or demolition of the Artgates’, without prior consultation with the original architect, Hwang Doojin (principal, Doojin Hwang Architects). This phrasing was seen as an attempt to shift responsibility onto the jury and participants in the absence of a public consensus on the demolition. Hwang requested that the local government modify the competition guidelines to explicitly state the preservation of the Artgate, but that was not accepted. In the official Q&A document released on Mar. 14, the city responded that ‘participants may propose the preservation or demolition of the Art Gate for the sake of overall design coherence, and copyright is not directly related to this competition.’ The competition proceeded without any official statement addressing the controversy, and among the nine submitted proposals, three were shortlisted for the final review on June 19. However, five out of six jurors deferred the decision to select a winning entry, and the competition ultimately concluded without a winner. Although there was no first-prize winner, two of the shortlisted proposals were recognized: OFFICEUNKNOWN Architects (principal, Kim Dohoon) received second place, and LISO architects (principal, Kim Daeil) received third place. As of now, SMG has not announced any specific followup plans regarding the outcome of the competition.
