The leader of South Korea’s newly-created Administrative City has launched an international architecture competition for a National Museum Complex (NMC) that will help make the destination “a global culture city”.

Choongjae Lee, the city’s administrator, has vowed to build “the world's most beautiful and liveable city” through investment in architecture, technology, urban planning and design and environmental sustainability.

The Administrative City, also known as Sejong, was established in 2007 and opened in 2012 in a bid to create more balanced national development away from the capital Seoul. It currently has 130,000 inhabitants.

To bring a dose of culture, municipal planners want to build five museums: a National Design Museum, National Architecture and City Museum, National Archives Museum, National Digital Heritage Museum and National Children Museum.

The first stage of the NMC competition is seeking architects from around the world to propose a masterplan for the five museum buildings and supporting facilities on a site area of 75,000sq m (807,293sq ft). They must also design a development plan for the wider 190,000sq m (2,045,143sq ft) project site.

Five entries will be shortlisted and invited to enter a second competition stage where they develop their masterplans further. A final winner will be chosen by the jury and granted the right of design contract for the NMC.

All designs must be environmentally friendly, harmonise with the surrounding nature and provide citizens with open space.

“The NMC is expected to provide the Administrative City with creative power by securing cultural identity and symbolic property not only for local community but also for the nation,” said the competition organisers in a statement. “The NMC will grow to be a space for all citizens.”

Any professionals in architecture, urban design, landscape design, cultural design, or other fields can enter the competition, but all design teams should include at least one Korean architect.

Registration to enter the first stage will close on 17 June 2016, and design submissions must be received by 13 July. Shortlisted teams for stage two will be informed on 8 August with the next submission deadline set for 4 November. The final winner will be announced 14 November.

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