Godeung-dong Community Center to be Built in Paldal-gu

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jeong Jun-sung] Suwon City announced on the 25th that it has decided to establish the 'Godeung-dong Community Center,' which will become a landmark and community hub in Godeung-dong, Paldal-gu.

The Godeung-dong Community Center will be built at 61-7 Godeung-dong as a two-story structure with a total area of 392.31㎡. Construction will begin in early next month with completion scheduled for May next year.

The 'Gorae-deung 24-hour Community Sharing Space' (hereinafter Gorae-deung) will be located in the Community Center. Gorae-deung, which opened on the first floor of a building in Godeung-dong in July of last year, is a temporary base space for the Godeung-dong Urban Regeneration Project.

The Godeung-dong Community Center is more than three times larger than the current space occupied by Gorae-deung (108.1㎡). Once the Godeung-dong Community Center opens, more residents will be able to use Gorae-deung comfortably.

A seminar room for meetings and workshops, a community lounge and care space, a shaded rest area, a community garden, and more will be created. The book café, which is frequented by many residents, will be significantly expanded.

The city held multiple resident briefing sessions and communicated with residents while completing the detailed design of the Godeung-dong Community Center. The optimal design plan was finalized by actively incorporating residents' opinions.

The exterior was designed to harmonize with surrounding residential buildings, and the interior was designed to allow residents to visit comfortably and make useful use of the facilities. Residents' opinions were also reflected when determining the purpose of facilities to be included inside.

The Godeung-dong Community Center received 'BF (Barrier-Free) preliminary certification' in April. The plan is to receive full certification during the completion process. BF preliminary certification refers to certification provided prior to full certification, based on project plans and design drawings.

'BF (Barrier-Free) facilities' are facilities planned, designed, and constructed so that not only people with disabilities, the elderly, children, and pregnant women, but also all people including those with temporary disabilities can access individual facilities, use them, and move without experiencing inconvenience.

Gorae-deung, which will be housed in the Godeung-dong Community Center, will be equipped with a shared refrigerator, shared kitchen, small library, and tool library. Inside the small library, there will be a children's braille library, and a 'Memory Album Digitization Project' will be conducted to create digital albums of neighborhood memories.

The 'shared refrigerator' is a refrigerator used by all, where anyone can place food and those in need can take it. It is a 'love, sharing, and exchange project' that reduces food waste and restores community through forming an organic 'food network' in the neighborhood.

The Gorae-deung shared refrigerator is always filled with food donated by residents. Elderly residents living alone and residents facing financial difficulties open the refrigerator and take out food filled with the care of neighbors. As the refrigerator empties, it is soon filled with food again.

The 'shared kitchen' is a space where local residents cook together, share cooking tips, and share food. A cooking club made up of residents often neatly packages the food they make and places it in the shared refrigerator.

The 'Gorae-deung Small Library' has reading rooms for adults and infants with approximately 2,000 books and also provides a 'braille picture book corner' for children with visual impairments.