A House Is Divided Into Three Volumes For Additional Guest House In South Korea

Practice of Korean architecture In Jeju-si, South Korea, Formative Architects converted this house into three volumes to create more space for a guest house.

The location is Pyeongdae-ri, which has a broad and flat area (Jeju language: Bengdi) that continues to the seashore from Jeju Island's gorgeous Bijarim Forest. The owner desired a location where they could reside and earn a profit. They wanted to be able to run lodgings and supply meals for their visitors, and each place needed to be clearly split for the privacy of the guests while being organically connected for ease of management.

The architectural spaces that are split and settled inside an unusual site naturally generate some unexpected yards with diverse personalities, and when those yards linked, they were able to roughly confine the altering spatial personality of Olle Trails that lead to traditional Jeju homes.

Rather than a huge building, they wanted it to be segmented and naturally settle in while recognizing the terrain's movement. Furthermore, they wanted the visual shift of the building's front to be evident as visitors walked down the Olle path, and they wanted the blue sky to be seen between the separated buildings rather than a big facade. A building that may create a visual extension inside the site as people naturally travel up and down the raised terrain of the flat land was built, and the concept was sought to be more stably maintained by employing the same material as the outside wall and roof for the material of the facade.

This location's staircases, in particular, have a dynamic and static personality. This is due to their personality as "landscape stairs" rather than "steps that merely surmount heights." When one climbs the stairs, its personality will be explicable via the thrill of the unexpected visual openness from the first floor, as well as the visual metamorphosis that ascends along the lane on the continuation of the Olle path until this area is reached. The steps become one with the home and nature in this place.

The interior space is divided into layers based on the triangle shape and is made up of distinct areas. The two structures, which are completed in red bricks and utilized as lodgings, have an area of around 50 m² and two stories. Even though the bedroom and bathroom view the ocean, they were designed to be naturally connected with two unique linking circulations from the living room space on the first floor.

The first floor of the residential structure contains a family room that is actively connected to the outdoor yard, as well as a cooking area and pantry. The second floor is an area where the family may enjoy their hobbies or work, while the third floor houses the two girls' quarters. Because all of these rooms are visually and geographically related to one another, the division of regions inside one space was made feasible rather than the division by floors.

Photographs by Youngsung Koh.