Title Exploring a Publicness Audit Framework for Public Architecture in Korea Through Application Across Statutory Project Phases
Authors 김예리(Kim, Yerie) ; 박소현(Park, Sohyun)
DOI https://doi.org/10.5659/JAIK.2025.41.10.59
Page pp.59-70
ISSN 2733-6247
Keywords Public architecture; Publicness; Civility; Publicness Audit Framework
Abstract As stated in the Framework Act on Architecture, which emphasizes that architecture must realize public values, publicness is an inherent value of architecture. Many previous studies such as Kohn, 2004; Nemeth & Schmidt, 2007, 2011; Varna & Tiesdell, 2010; Langstraat et al., 2015; Wang & Chen, 2010; Lopes, Cruz & Pinho, 2019 have attempted to define architectural publicness. However, these studies used different terminologies and defining dimensions, making it difficult to identify overall research trends or to evaluate the publicness of actual buildings using a unified set of criteria. This study synthesizes and reorganizes various publicness dimensions and audit systems proposed in previous research and develops a new framework for defining and evaluating publicness, incorporating Korea’s legislated public architecture processes. The resulting framework proposes four new dimensions: Users and Purpose, Management, Physical Configuration, and Civility, and designs an audit system for each project phase. The system includes content analysis of design competition guidelines as outcomes of the public architecture planning process, visual assessment of physical design elements in public architecture projects awarded through competitions, and surveys capturing actual users’ perceptions of the facilities. Unlike existing evaluation methods, which focus primarily on quantifiable measures such as accessibility, the proposed publicness audit system actively incorporates qualitative aspects such as civility. By aligning with Korea’s legislated public architecture processes, this study highlights the potential of the audit framework’s results at each project phase to serve as preliminary resources for future public architecture projects and related policymaking.