Evaluation of Design Issues and the Social Perceptions of the Asian Culture Complex, South Korea

This study aims to understand and analyze the social recognition and debate shown during the progress of the Asian Culture Complex (ACC) public project as well as the environmental evaluation performed by provincial community members. A 30-question survey based on a Likert scale was conducted with 150 experts. The study showed, first, that despite controversies over landmarks and historical locations, the quality of the architect's first draft was considered fairly high. However, vibrant landmarks were greatly desired. Furthermore, respondents reported conflicting recognitions of the same concept, which were defined differently depending on the terms and concepts used by the architect. Second, historical locations were considered important. The architects' final design was modified based on quality and in response to social pressure, resulting in the partial retention of the provincial government annex building. Although the first draft was considered to be of high quality, the modified plan was considered even better than the original design, revealing the 2-fold characteristics of the identical phenomenon in the environmental evaluation. Third, many groups held opinions that were balanced between the architects' originality and the value of community-based recognition; hence, the social inclination and evaluation of the project differed across the public.