02
Residential
Modern Hanok
The project reinterprets Hanok principles—layered intimacy and borrowed nature—as a framework for contemporary public housing in Seoul's Mapo District. Korea's standardized apartment typology has severed the relationship between residents and their community and natural environment. By translating the spatial logic of vernacular architecture into three scales of intervention—unit, floor, and building—the design creates layered communal interaction. Each scale reflects the core values of Hanok, the traditional Korean home: borrowing nature inward and cultivating spaces of gradual intimacy. It offers a new housing typology that restores intimacy, collective identity, and environmental awareness within high-density urban living.
Floor Scale Intervention
Research and exploration of vernacular Korean architecture, including studies on Madang and Daecheong as buffers between public/private and outdoor/indoor, and material studies on Hanji as a sustainable traditional material.
strategy
Design Strategy Diagram
Strategic frameworks visualizing how Hanok principles are translated into a contemporary residential typology, addressing both spatial organization and environmental performance.
Design Strategy 1
Design Strategy 2
concept
Program
Programmatic distribution across five tiers of communal scale—from intimate spaces between units to public-facing areas connecting residents and the broader community.
Proposed Program
Design Approach
plans
Living
Unit and floor scale interventions creating double-height living spaces with cross-ventilation and in-between flexibility, reinterpreting the Hanok principle of borrowed nature within the dwelling unit.
Unit Axon 1
Unit Axon 2
Floor Axon
Unit Material Board
Unit Render 1
Unit Render 2
renderings
Communal
Building-scale interventions creating Urban Daecheong—a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional Korean transition space—that hosts diverse communal activities while maintaining visual and spatial connections to nature.
Ground Floorplan
Material Board
Modern Daecheong
Lobby
Office
Community Activity & Pop up Events
plans
Overview
Overall building organization showing the integration of unit, floor, and building scale interventions into a cohesive residential typology.
Section Perspective
Exploded Axonometric
Physical models exploring spatial relationships, material qualities, and the translation of vernacular principles into contemporary form.
Next Project
03 — Library As a Third Place
Civic / Culture