Bronze Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2026
Miryang Election Platform Government Office
by Junghee Lee
- A' Design Award 2026 Bronze Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: 2m2 Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 6,260
- Verification code 807833C5D3 · Verify this award
About Miryang Election Platform Government Office
Seen from the street, the Miryang Election Platform conveys institutional calm through disciplined, understated architecture. A brick tile facade, laid out in measured rhythmic repetition, gives the building a grounded presence that fits naturally within the surrounding urban fabric. On the left, a rounded stair volume offsets the rectilinear office mass, softening the elevation while drawing daylight into shared interior spaces. The curve acts as a discreet signature, suggesting openness without losing authority. Together, these moves translate civic trust into built form.
Junghee Lee's Miryang Election Platform Government Office emerges from a rich lineage of contemporary civic architecture that seeks to reconcile monumental institutional presence with approachable community engagement, positioning itself within ongoing explorations of how public buildings might embody democratic values through spatial generosity, material honesty, and formal clarity while remaining rooted in cultural and environmental context. The design achieves notable compositional sophistication through its strategic massing strategy, deploying a dominant cylindrical tower element that commands visual attention and establishes civic landmark identity while grounding this vertical gesture through lower horizontal volumes that mediate between monument and streetscape, creating layered thresholds of approach that invite rather than intimidate. The chromatic restraint demonstrates disciplined material intelligence, restricting the palette to nuanced neutrals spanning charcoal through warm gray to honey-toned metallics, allowing textural variation and lighting modulation to create visual richness without chromatic distraction, the subtle warm accents functioning as strategic highlights that guide the eye toward entry points and structural articulation. Technically, the facade systems reveal careful consideration of scale, rhythm, and material performance, the finely striated vertical cladding of the tower suggesting durability and permanence while creating subtle surface animation through linear relief, the broader corrugated panels of the lower volumes introducing contrasting tempo and perhaps responding to different programmatic requirements or construction economies, each system thoughtfully integrated within the overall architectural composition. The fenestration strategy appears deliberately restrained, employing vertical slots on the tower that preserve the mass's sculptural integrity while providing necessary interior illumination and outward prospect, the larger grouped windows of the lower volumes suggesting more transparent zones of public interface where citizens might engage directly with institutional processes. The work invites contemplation of how contemporary institutional architecture might balance competing demands for symbolic authority and democratic accessibility, for enduring material presence and environmental responsibility, for formal distinction and contextual integration, the building proposing through its composed massing and disciplined material palette that civic dignity need not depend upon historical pastiche or rhetorical excess but might instead emerge from honest material expression, thoughtful proportional relationships, and spaces designed first for human inhabitation and communal gathering. What meanings might visitors and passersby discover in the relationship between the vertical tower suggesting aspiration, oversight, or collective identity and the horizontal volumes suggesting grounded service, daily operation, and accessible encounter?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The building’s calm materials and restrained composition reinforce its institutional identity. A brick tile facade, defined by rhythmic repetition, creates a grounded presence that blends with the surrounding urban fabric. On the left, a rounded stair volume contrasts the rectilinear office mass, adding balance while drawing daylight into shared interiors as a subtle signature. These calibrated gestures turn the office into a symbol of civic trust.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The facility is organized over three floors to match the Election Office's workflow the first floor provides parking and election material storage as the logistical base the second floor contains the main offices, committee rooms, and a highly secured ballot box vault built with reinforced walls for maximum protection and the third floor serves election integrity operations, with a multipurpose meeting room, Fair Election Support Team offices, and investigation rooms.
- Tags
- Miryang Election Platform, liberal democratic society, election, 2m2 architects, DJ 2m2
- Production Technology
- By delicately balancing security and openness, public and private functions, the project embodies the design ethos essential to contemporary public architecture. Ultimately, this building is more than an administrative structure it is a civic infrastructure supporting local democracy and a lasting architectural symbol of fair elections for generations to come.
- Design Challenge
- In Korea, public architecture is often compromised as the initial design gets diluted by excessive client intervention. After winning the design competition, it took the architect’s persistent effort and continuous coordination to carry the original concept through to construction. It was not an easy journey, but we were able to align all parties and bring the project to a successful close.
- Project Duration
- This project began after winning a design competition in Korea in 2023, and it was completed in 2025.
- Operation Flow
- This vertical zoning expresses not only functional order but also the democratic values of fairness and protection. Externally, calm materials and a controlled composition reinforce the building’s institutional character, while a brick tile facade uses rhythmic repetition to convey discipline and a grounded presence that blends with the surrounding urban fabric.
- Research
- In a liberal democracy, elections are the practical expression of popular sovereignty, and the trust they create depends on fairness and transparency. Local election commissions apply national rules on the ground, running the process close to citizens and sustaining democracy in daily community life. The Miryang Election Platform translates this role into architecture a composed, secure setting for impartial procedures that strengthens public confidence through restraint and clarity, not overt symbolism.
- Inspiration
- In a liberal democracy, elections are the practical exercise of popular sovereignty, and the trust they create depends on fairness and transparency. Local election commissions bring national rules to on-site reality, running the process close to citizens and sustaining democracy in community life. The Miryang Election Platform translates this role into architecture a composed place that supports impartial procedures, strengthens public confidence, and favors restraint over symbolism.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Kyungsub Shin, 2025
Image #2, Photographer Kyungsub Shin, 2025
Image #3, Photographer Kyungsub Shin, 2025
Image #4, Photographer Kyungsub Shin, 2025
Image #5. Photographer Kyungsub Shin, 2025
Video Credits: 2m2 architects