South Korea’s traditional hanok homes informed the design of this compact house on a mountainside in Bugok, Changnyeong County, which features semi-outdoor spaces for relaxing in the summer.
Bugok Friday House was designed by Seoul-based TRU Architects for a family who wanted a countryside retreat they could visit at weekends from their main home in South Korea’s capital.
The house is built on a narrow site measuring 18 metres in length by just four metres in width. Its setting informed its design, which aims to make the most of views towards the nearby Bukhansan mountains.
The project features on the shortlist for the rural house category at Dezeen Awards 2022.
The rooms at Bugok Friday House – a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom – are arranged in a single row so the family can look out at the scenery from every space.
“Our goal was to design a house where they could enjoy both indoor and outdoor views of the stunning mountains and a quiet village,” TRU Architects said.
The building’s design is based on traditional Korean hanok houses, which typically feature simple pitched roofs with extended eaves. Hanok homes also often incorporate passive solutions for heating and cooling the interiors.
A large overhanging roof supported by a row of columns protects the living spaces in Bugok Friday House from direct sunlight during the hot summer months, while allowing winter sunlight to warm the rooms.
The building is also raised above the ground so that cooling breezes passing beneath it can enter through the floor.
A wooden deck that extends around the house recalls traditional covered balconies known as a toen-maru. The deck connects with a semi-outdoor room that was informed by another typical feature of hanok houses, the daecheong-maru.
In total, around 23 square metres of the building’s built area of 80 square metres comprises covered outdoor spaces that provide cool, shaded areas for the family to gather and relax.
As with traditional hanok houses, landscaping within the site is kept simple to maintain the viewer’s focus on the scenery. Various species of flowering trees positioned to be visible from within the house will bloom at different times throughout the year.
The building has a roof made from corrugated steel that was also used as the formwork for the exposed-concrete external walls. A horizontal datum separates the upper corrugated section of the wall from the smooth lower section.
Inside the house, TRU Architects designed the main dining and living space with a level change on either side of the central island unit, so that those sitting on one side can converse at eye level with those standing on the other side.
The living area is positioned on one side of the house’s entrance hall, with a bathroom, storage space and sleeping area on the opposite side of the house.
Also shortlisted in the rural house category for Dezeen Awards 2022 is a house on a Scottish island that references relics of agricultural buildings, and an Italian home with a ficus tree growing in the centre of the living space.
The photography is by Yousub Song.
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