Seoul City seeks most beautiful buildings

The Seoul metropolitan government is holding a contest to find beautiful buildings in Seoul from Wednesday to September 10. Through a public contest of 640,000 buildings in the city including traditional Korean house “hanok” and modern architectures, the city plans to single out 100 most beautiful buildings.

Beautiful buildings will be selected in the two categories of housing and non-housing. Citizens who participate in the contest must submit why they think candidate building is beautiful and five photos of the building. The city government will hold citizens’ vote and expert’s review for five days from September 11, before selecting the most beautiful buildings.

If the proposed building makes the list of 100 buildings, he or she will receive gift certificates for cultural products worth 50,000 won (45 U.S. dollars). If multiple people recommend a certain building, the citizen who wrote the introduction letter best will acquire the prize. Apart from this, the city government plans to single out two buildings with unique exterior looks or those that have a story, and present gift certificates for cultural products to citizens who recommended the buildings.

Buildings that were already registered as cultural properties or public buildings can also be candidates. Those who are applying should submit documents online to (서울아름다운건물찾기.kr), or by postal mail at (Secretariat of the Seoul beautiful buildings contest at 5th floor, Eoulmadang-ro 35, Mapo-gu, Seoul) by mail.