For me, house projects have always been a way to understand the general problem of architecture. It's always been a difficult subject, but every time I finished working on a project, I felt my understanding of it become clearer. Though this project was the first project I worked on after I left Korea, it was a chance to use all my architecture knowledge and develop it.
Domus, ancient Roman / Villa Emo, Andrea Palladio, 1559 / Folk painting of the Soswaewon pavilion in Korea, 1530
One needs to recognise the existence of a common theme in architecture: a theme that is derived from the community’s needs and the conditions of reality. Architecture is system based on theoretical concepts. It's at the same time what we're trying to discover and the work we conceptualise. One also needs to recognise the existence of the "typology". The concept of typology is also conceptual. These two invisible systems take form through the reality of the place where the building will be placed.
The house typology must be considered in three ways: from a form perspective, from a collectivity perspective and from the point of view of the relationship with nature.
The Ancients built their houses taking into consideration all three aspects. The Domus always had a courtyard at its centre - from a form point of view, the courtyard is the core of the structure of the house. Every room is placed around this core. They are responsible for the order of the spatial distribution and they integrate all spaces. In terms of collectivity, each room is meant to be for private use, instead the courtyard is the centre of the public life - a space where people engage in public activities.
From the point of view of the relationship with nature, the courtyard becomes a ground for agriculture or gardening. It's a space without a roof that is often paved with stones and that people can use to plant a garden.
Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Mies van der Rohe, 1951 / Villa Tugendhat, Mies van der Rohe, 1930 / Plan of the house with three courts, Mies van der Rohe, 1930
As for houses in the countryside, we have the opposite situation. During the Renaissance, the houses by Andrea Palladio followed this tradition. His palazzos have the same structure of the Domus of the Ancients, same for his villas.
Villa La Rotonda is freestanding on a hill, open on all four sides and its dome lays at the intersection of the axes of the four entrances and represents the centre of the formal structure of the building.
From the point of view of the relationship with nature, the house can assume two different forms according to the nature of the space where it is placed: one form built around a core, one form opened to nature.
If the space is a plain with no reference points, the house will assume a closed form, enclosed and protected by walls.
In this case we usually have an inner courtyard or towers.
If the space has instead a relevant natural area, such as a lake or a hill, the house shouldn't assume a closed form.
This difference can also be seen in the houses by Mies van der Rohe. When it came to houses, the main focus for Mies was the relationship between the house and nature. Mies considered nature as the only basis and the only context for domestic life.
His conception of nature can be articulated in two principles. The first one is about defining the relationship between the house and the land. His low-rise houses are comprised of a roof and an enclosure, starting from his early studies of the house, through the house of three courts, until his Barcelona pavilion.
Satellite image of Lake Iseo area / Surrounding natural context of the site
The second one is building the house according to the relationship with the surrounding nature intended as a landscape. The Villa Tugendhat was built in line with this principle - it is located on a hillside overlooking the landscape of Czech city of Brno. The same concept can also be found in his high-rise houses.
Looking at his Lake Shore Drive Apartments project, Lake Michigan is the only element that can justify all the subsequent developments of the project, from the arrangement of the two volumes to the materials used.
Early sketches of the project
Back to my project, I found myself struggling on how to proceed. The site of my project is located in Monte Isola, on the shore of Lake Iseo in Italy. It's a lake island mountain with steep slopes.
Like with Mies, my design is also based on the natural surroundings. The house opens to the lake and has mountains behind it. In my head I imagined a family dining together while enjoying the view of Lake Iseo. When starting a project, I like to think of a general idea and work from there.
Perspective view of the front of the house
First floor plan of the house / Ground floor plan of the house
Elevation of the front of the house / Elevation of the rear of the house / Elevation of the house / Section of the house
That is my first focus and the second one is the form. It is important that the forms compliment the general idea and not contradict it.
I thought and hard on how to find a form in accordance to Mies' definition of architecture. The passages from typology to construction and from construction to form. Each passage is based on the principles of order, proportion and decoration. In this process I could understand once more how much an architect's skilled design sense can really affect the final design. And then I always worry that I won't be able to find it. I sketched many designs only to end up throwing them away. Finding the perfect form for my idea was hard.
The land of the site lies at an angle to the horizontal so that some points on it are higher than others and the height difference is equal to the one of a storey. The night spaces and the day spaces each occupy a different side of the volume and they are divided by a giant wall that has the function of vertical circulation. This wall acts like the spine of the building and allows the two worlds to coexist in the body of the same building.
The day spaces are constituted by the living room and the kitchen and are defined by two high walls. Instead, the night spaces, constituted by the studio and the bedroom, are defined by a roof and columns. My intention was to create a space using a constructive method appropriate to its characters.
Country house in Sicily, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1804 / Pergola of the Court Gardener’s House at Charlottenhof, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1835
Perspective view of the inside of the house
I've always been interested in the forms that are not just architectural forms but also have a cultural value. For example, the form created by jar arrangements (like Jangdokdae), the form created by the overlapping roofs of Buddhist temples or the form created by a jungle tree.
On the front of the house, there is a balcony designed as a pergola, that acts as a protection against the strong sunlight. The pergola design emphasises the frontal view. Most importantly, it's an element that immediately reveals the cultural foundation of its building. Historically, the pergola has been one of the forms to represent domestic and pastoral life.
Perspective view of the outside of the house
Exploded isometric view of the house / Cross plan in detail of the house
At this stage, the house is still just a construction, not a form. I had to turn this technical form into an architectural one. This process is called "decoration". Through this process the element of the construction assumes its representative form. Thus decoration is necessary and inevitable. It reveals the inner logic of structure by joyfully celebrating it. A Corinthian capital doesn't highlight where forces change directions in the same way a bolt at an intersection of steel does. It reveals structure by giving festive delight: delight in the harmonies of mathematics, nature, physics, craft. It makes the truth more evident as Saint Augustine said.
Finally, Mies' pillars became columns.
Cross sections of the house
Cross elevations of the house
