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Architects: Soltozibin Architects
- Area: 299 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Yoon Joonhwan
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Lead Architects: Cho Namho
Text description provided by the architects. Seoripul Tree House - Seochodong, where the site is located, derives its name from the abundance of Seoripul plants. Streams from Umyeonsan Mountain flow around the site, located between the Seoul National University of Education and the Gyeongbu Expressway. In rainy seasons, the town nearby used to get quite foggy. While most Gangnam residences are filled with apartments or complexes, the area near the site is full of single housing, creating a silent atmosphere.
A house, the smallest unit of buildings that constitutes a city, is also another little city and universe. Shared values gather into a town, and towns gather into a city. At the first meeting, the client brought a cardboard model to explain their thoughts. The model had separate floors and looked like a pile of blocks stacked vertically and horizontally. Even the client’s explanation was like blocks being stacked up vertically. It was about how the family's lifestyle would change into independent areas.
The design was based on distributing independent area space and composing the density of the relationship. The house neither has a living room nor any space that functions as the center of the house. Instead, public space is divided into a hall, a library, or other. Connected and divided spaces gather up to form the house, and the house becomes a component of the city.
The house is placed in an L shape, open towards the southwest. The high walls in the south and west give the impression and function of a courtyard house. The elevation next to the road gives a closed impression, but the exposed timber structure and garden behind it give an allusion to the interior and grant vitality to the view.
Free Plan, Free Section—The piled blocks might need to change like puzzle pieces in the future. We needed a flexible structure method to fit the blocks and puzzles. Typically, form is followed by function. But the form doesn’t always follow function. Both form and function have their own strengths, and sometimes, function is followed by form. Seoripul Tree House has a hybrid structure of RC and timber.
The first step is a solid shell structure of reinforced concrete finished with fluoropolymer, hollowed out to a height of two stories. Step two is a joist of heavy wood consisting of the floor slab of the second floor. A joist connected from wall to wall is always a good foundation for free plans. The light-frame wood walls on the first and second floors are composed of present needs but can be reformed anytime. It is less flexible than walls, but the floor can be reformed for later necessities. This allows freedom in designing the plan and section. The hybrid space made of RC and timber lets the user experience flexible space and the uniqueness of material and structure.
