Seoul, South Korea
Kimustudio designed a series of installations in Gangdong-gu district of Seoul, that keep electric boxes safe functionally, make it difficult to attach illegal advertisements, and at the same time give pedestrians a visual pleasure.
The project has been awarded a 2023 Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Many cities face the same issue: electrical boxes are mounted in the street to control the electrical supply which are covered in illegal flyposters and blight the urban landscape.
Non-adhesive sheets are often attached to the electrical boxes to prevent people from sticking flyposters, but they are easy to remove and are damaged easily.
Kimustudio created boxes that are hard to attach advertisements while they are decorated with delightful artworks as well as poems creating a form of narrative.
The designers at Kimustudio collaborate with the “special designers”, as they like to call them.
These are people with disabilities “whose minds are so pure like children. Society may see them as developmentally disabled, but they see them as very special designers,” as Kimustudio states.
The 33 artworks, which are displayed on electrical boxes in the urban streets are the results of collaboration between designers with or without disabilities, offering vivid patterns and exceptional objects along with a unique color spectrum.
Project: Gangdong-gu Art Covered Electrical Boxes
Designers: Kimustudio
Design Team: Yonghyuk Shin, Gangdong-gu Urban Landscape Project Team, Kimustudio Creative Design Team
Manufacturer: Gangdong-gu Office
