Environmental and wayfinding design for Mindungsan takes presidential award; Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company claim prime minister prizes
A project that consistently designed and branded the experience of visiting a specific natural site has taken the top honor at this year's Good Design Korea awards.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) announced Tuesday that the winners had been selected through the 2026 Good Design award jury process.
A total of 80 works were recognized this year — one grand prize, two gold prizes, 25 silver prizes and 52 bronze prizes. The presidential award, the competition's highest honor, went to Eum Partners for "660,000 Square Meters of Silver Grass Prairie: An Overwhelming Mindungsan Experience Route." Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Fold8 and Hyundai Motor Company's MoBeD each received the prime minister's award.
The grand prize-winning project reinterprets Mindungsan's natural environment and the process by which visitors experience the site through design, applying that vision to a place-branding public environment design project. The mountain's distinctive natural features — its ridgelines, silver grass, dolines (bowl-shaped depressions in the terrain) and red soil — were visualized through a concept called "layers of nature."
These elements were applied consistently to trailhead signage and village-entrance sculptures, allowing visitors to naturally absorb the site's identity as they make their way to the mountain. The jury particularly noted that the project elevated the value of the location by drawing on its inherent natural characteristics and extended the scope of design to encompass the very way people experience a space.
Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Fold8, one of the prime minister's award winners, is a foldable smartphone that harnesses its flexible screen to open new possibilities in the form and use of digital devices. MoBeD is a mobile robot platform designed for use across diverse environments, representing a paradigm shift in adaptive wheeled robotics. The jury said both works demonstrate design's role in connecting product function with user experience — the Galaxy Z Fold8 in the digital device category and MoBeD in the mobility sector.
The award jury process last month drew on 80 works in total, with six section chairs from the first-round jury committee taking part in the evaluation alongside 80 observers.
Ahn Byung-hak, a professor at Hongik University and chair of the jury, said, "Good design is design that leads and drives change in our lives."
KIDP Director General Kang Yun-ju said the organization aims to "continuously discover outstanding design across our lifestyle and industry through Good Design Korea" and pledged to "widely promote the value and competitiveness of Korean design both at home and abroad."
The winning works will be exhibited at Design Korea 2026, running Nov. 25-29. The Good Design awards ceremony is scheduled for early December.
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