Despite various development projects and demands for architectural design due to rapid social and economic change, urban planning regulations and architectural design standards have been applied to cities in Korea in uniform ways regardless of characteristics of individual buildings and given site conditions. This have also made existing architectural design standards or their related acts produce very uniform and monotonous urban landscape as well as fail to adapt various architectural design demands in the actual built environment. Considering these realistic difficulties, it is clear that revision or improvement of architectural design standards or their related acts should be inevitable to encourage various development and architectural design projects under current urban situations.
In order to encourage creative architectural design and produce better urban landscape by improving existing architectural law and zoning ordinances, The Korea Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) initiated 'Special Architectural District' (SAD) in January 2008. It allows national government or municipalities to deregulate or ease the current legal provisions and to integrate rocedures of each development project type into one single process for several specific urban development projects such as Sejong City, Innovative City, Free Economic Zone, and other specific development projects for large-scale international events. This provision also helps building owners and architect designers to produce more well-designed buildings which can contribute to
improving social equity and reflect architects' creativity as much as possible. However, SAD still lacks detailed provisions and operating standards for its effective application and revitalization through agreements and communications among the authorities concerned.

Considering these situations, this study provides operating guidelines for designation of 'SAD' included in the current architectural law. This operating guidelines will suggest institutional
ways for settlement of 'SAD' and its effective operation.