Common Ground
The Bandalbi National Sports Center in Paju serves as a complex sports facility along the pedestrian axis connecting Paju Stadium and Geumchon Multipurpose Gymnasium, functioning as a combined cultural and leisure facility for all local residents in Paju. Located on the northern side of the site, the central road provides convenient access from anywhere as it connects Paju City Hall, subway stations, nearby highways, catering to various modes of transportation such as vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Due to its horizontally expansive setting within the existing agricultural land, it plays a role in converging the flow of the city and outwardly radiating, creating an open space that interacts diversely with the surroundings. The Bandalbi Sports Center, designed based on consideration and understanding for individuals without discrimination between people with disabilities and non-disabled individuals, serves as a mediator between people, the city, and public spaces.
Universal design starts from recognizing everyone's differences rather than defining a particular majority as "normal" and discriminating against a minority due to their differences. Since each individual is unique, with numerous and diverse distinctions, everyone is equally important. It begins by paying closer attention to each person and being sensitive to the subtle differences in everyone's bodies. The spaces created within Paju's Bandalbi Sports Center stem from a profound consideration for the architectural appearance of a simple, flexible, fair, free, diverse, and enjoyable complex cultural and sports facility.
The Bandalbi Sports Center in Paju places a strong emphasis on embracing the daily lives and physical differences of diverse individuals. It acknowledges the variety of everyday experiences and physical differences of everyone who seeks a complex cultural and sports facility in their daily lives, including young mothers pushing strollers, students using wheelchairs due to leg injuries, children who are deaf, young adults undergoing vision therapy without complete recovery, seniors coming on scooters, pregnant women and their husbands.
A Public Space Encompassing Everyday Life
For a long time, Paju's public cultural facilities mainly developed as tourist attractions centered around coastal areas and the demilitarized zone (DMZ). However, recently, Paju has made considerable efforts to advance public architectural cultural heritage centered around its citizens. As an extension of the motto of public architecture as a "connecting city" based on Paju's geographical characteristics and historical background and urging active citizen participation in "connecting spaces," the Bandalbi Sports Center can be envisioned as a more just and inclusive public building based on the ideology of universal design. If public buildings were previously focused on nostalgia, the Bandalbi Sports Center proposes an additional value of coexistence alongside nostalgia. It embodies the ideology of a public building not specifically for a certain minority but aiming to encompass more people's differences and everyday lives. It will be a resident-friendly public building that promotes the improvement of residents' quality of life, connects regions, and understands and encapsulates the daily lives of individuals.
