The team ‘MoA’, composed of Kwon Dae-hee, Yoon Jong-eun, and Hong Seung-wan (School of Architecture, Seniors), won the grand prize in the LH Park Architecture Design Competition. Hosted by LH, the competition sought new public architectural designs for application in the Third New Towns, under the theme ‘Park Architecture Embracing Culture.’ The team proposed ‘MoA,’ a new public architectural structure that dissolves the boundaries between park and building, allowing anyone to move freely and naturally.

The idea behind ‘MoA’ began with analyzing the limitations of existing public architecture. Kwon said, “Existing park facilities create boundaries within the park centered on buildings like libraries and art museums. We focused on the role of such infrastructure as ‘auxiliary facilities’ that blend with the existing park rather than restricting diverse park activities to happen inside a building.”

They noted that people typically visit parks for walks or relaxation, without specific goals. Kwon explained, “When you see someone playing badminton, you want to join, and if the day is nice, you want to open a picnic mat and lie down. Parks are spaces for these varied activities. Rather than a fixed building serving one purpose, we proposed architecture that supports activities already happening in the park.”

‘MoA’ minimizes the area of buildings contacting the ground by suspending spaces, arranging programs within a three-dimensional grid. This, thus, opened up possibilities for a ‘platform’ that can flexibly adjust space size and location according to each park’s purpose and user needs.

The vibrant colors and shapes of ‘MoA’ were inspired by ‘children’s block boxes.’ Hong said, “Children play with blocks easily because the blocks are intuitive. Blue represents water, and green means trees; reading the space as it appears leads to comfortable use.

Ultimately, ‘MoA’ aims to be a playground everyone enjoys. Its colorful segmented boxes and connecting stairs evoke playground equipment. The translucent exterior material allows the building to glow like a sky lantern at night. Hong added, “We considered not only a beautiful nightscape but also practical solutions for safety in dark areas at night.”

A key driver of the project’s success was strong teamwork. The team gathered from a previous park design project last semester, dividing roles efficiently across drawings, diagrams, and modeling/rendering. Kwon recalled the most memorable moment: “We hadn’t discussed concepts beforehand, but the drafts each of us brought to the meeting were similar. I felt we would work well together.”

Regarding the theme ‘Park Architecture as a New Cultural Space,’ the team proposed a philosophy centered on the people visiting the park. Kwon said, “New culture in park architecture is created by the people utilizing the facilities. Flexibility to be replaced by diverse facilities suitable to location and user needs is the essence of park facilities.” Yoon added, “Rather than defining new culture, we hope architecture as ‘auxiliary facilities’ will expand to strengthen the culture and activities that existing parks had.”

Their award-winning design ‘MoA’ will actually be implemented in the Third New Towns. With high expectations for the realization of their architecture, they expressed, “Chasing what’s fun and what we like led to great results. Through various experimental attempts, we plan to make Korean architecture more colorful and exciting.”