IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

This paper examines the adaptive reuse of the former Gyeongbuk Provincial Government Complex in Daegu, South Korea, as a design-led strategy for reinterpreting administrative heritage for contemporary urban futures. Rather than treating the former government complex as a static object of preservation, the study explores how its historical, symbolic, and spatial values can be reactivated through a new cultural program centered on a National Museum of Modern Art, a National Musical Complex, and a Global Arts Convergence Complex. The report identifies three key heritage values of the site—symbolic form, contextual placeness, and complex reusability—which together frame the former complex not only as an architectural artifact but also as a public urban landscape embedded in wider ecological, cultural, and civic networks. Methodologically, the study adopts a research-by-design approach integrating culture, architecture, and urban design to test how preservation and transformation can be negotiated within one strategic framework. The project proposes preservation of the main government building’s symbolic facade and selective remodeling, while reconnecting the site to surrounding urban axes, green networks, and pedestrian flows that are currently fragmented. In doing so, the paper argues that administrative heritage can move beyond material conservation alone and become an active platform for cultural production, collective memory, and urban regeneration. The Daegu case suggests that the reinterpretation of modern governmental heritage can provide a meaningful model for linking cultural pasts with more open, connected, and publicly engaged urban futures.