‘The Experience of Climbing Mindungsan’ Wins Presidential Award at Good Design Korea

[The Financial News] ‘200,000-Pyeong Silver Grass Plain, an Overwhelming Mindungsan Experience Route,’ which designs the process of finding one’s way at a mountain trail junction and remembering the surrounding scenery, won this year’s top award at Good Design Korea (GOOD DESIGN KOREA).
On the 20th the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute of Design Promotion announced that a total of 80 award-winning works had been selected through the award review for ‘2026 GOOD DESIGN KOREA,’ including one Grand Prize, two Gold Awards, 25 Silver Awards and 52 Bronze Awards.
Ieum Partners’ ‘200,000-Pyeong Silver Grass Plain, an Overwhelming Mindungsan Experience Route,’ which won the Presidential Award, is a place-branding and public environmental design project that reinterprets Mindungsan’s natural environment and the way visitors experience the place through design, and applies that approach.
The project visualized Mindungsan’s distinctive natural features—its ridges and silver grass, dolines (depressions), and red soil—through the concept of ‘layers of nature.’ These elements were applied consistently to trail signs and sculptural installations at village entrances, allowing visitors to naturally recognize the identity of the place as they make their way to the mountain.
Samsung Electronics’ ‘Galaxy Z Fold8’ and Hyundai Motor Company’s ‘MobED (Mobile Eccentric Droid)’ were selected for the Prime Minister’s Award.
‘Galaxy Z Fold8,’ a foldable smartphone with a folding screen, presented new possibilities for the form and use of digital devices. ‘MobED’ is a mobile robot platform that can be used in a variety of environments and demonstrates a paradigm shift in adaptive wheeled robots.
Works that address the inconveniences experienced by a diverse range of users in everyday life and contribute to solving social problems were also selected.
Hanwha General Insurance’s ‘Wellness Kit for Caregivers of Sick Children: Voices for Long Nights’ is a design focused on the daily lives and health of caregivers looking after sick children. Its distinguishing feature is that it extends consideration beyond the sick children to include the caregivers who look after them.
Virus Design’s ‘Barrier-Free Information Kiosk’ takes the information accessibility of people with disabilities into account, reflecting in its design differences in how people access information depending on their physical conditions. LG Electronics’ ‘Aero Mini’ goes beyond conventional air purifiers centered on fixed forms and functions, with a design that allows its functions to be flexibly expanded to suit users’ spaces and lifestyles. 
Kang Yun-ju, president of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, said, “Good design has the power not only to improve the quality of products but also to make people’s daily lives more convenient and create new value for industry and society,” adding, “Through GOOD DESIGN KOREA, we will continue to discover outstanding design across our lives and industries and widely promote the value and competitiveness of Korean design at home and abroad.”
The winning works are expected to be exhibited at DESIGN KOREA 2026, which will be held from November 25 to 29. 
[email protected] Kim Hyun-cheol Reporter