To widen understanding and interest in steel and find new ideas utilizing steel materials, POSCO hosted the 2nd Annual POSCO Steel Design Festa contest with an award ceremony held at the POSCO Center on 28 August.

The event hosted by POSCO E&C, POSCO A&C, and other family companies was a success with approximately 100 attendees including family, company employees and related personnel, as well as the general public.

The honorable grand prize was jointly awarded to 'Hug Me' by 5th year architecture majors Park Hyeontae and Lim Seonmin of Hongik University, and 'Space Terminal Hotel' by 4th year architecture major Oh Jaehoon of Korea University, both receiving CEO commendation and 7 million KRW. First prize went to 'Homo Hundred Rail' by Choi Seongshik and Park Hyeonuk, 4th year architecture majors of Kookmin University, receiving commendation and 4 million KRW.

Under the theme of 'Steel, Homo Hundred' and in light of a new era where the average life span is beyond 100 years, this year's contest overcame the 'cold and stiff' image of steel and showed the possibility of steel being a 'light, soft, and warm material' which can be associated with leisure and rest.

The POSCO Festa Academy training was hosted to heighten the understanding level of steel materials and structure design, and strengthened the online popularity award criteria to especially make this year's contest more interesting than previous years.

168 teams of various majors including architecture, urban engineering, mechanical engineering, and cognitive science from 64 universities, 54 domestic and 10 abroad, participated in this year's contest.

Prize-winning works will be exhibited on the first floor lobby of POSCO Center from 6-12 September, and on the POSCO A&C office lobby from the 13-19 September. The grand prize and first prize winning works will be especially exhibited at the 2nd Annual POSCO Global EVI Forum from 16-18 October at the Seoul Walker Hill Hotel.

POSCO plans to continue to diversify the demand structure of steel products and support various events such as the Steel Design Festa Contest to proactively foster talent in the steel sector.