The site is situated within a typical urban residential complex that includes both standalone homes and apartment buildings. Our design prioritizes protecting residents’ privacy from the surrounding dense neighborhoods while ensuring ample natural light to create a bright, comfortable living environment. Unlike conventional square plots, this project sits on a diamond-shaped lot, a unique feature that strongly influenced our design approach.
To optimize the limited space and meet the owners’ needs, we embraced the site’s unique shape rather than forcing a typical right-angled layout. This approach avoids blind spots common on irregular plots. By carefully interpreting the site’s contours and conducting thorough field surveys, we aimed to create a diverse spatial experience. The building’s form naturally follows the land, expanding residential areas across the entire site while leaving open spaces inside in compliance with local regulations and owner preferences. These voids invite light and nature in, fostering a bright, pleasant atmosphere while maintaining privacy.
Upon entering through the stainless steel front door, visitors are greeted by a narrow courtyard filled with various stones and birch trees. This small birch grove creates a serene buffer zone that temporarily transports you away from the city center, separating the living space from the nearby roads. Passing through a second door leads into the interior, where the living room, dining area, and kitchen are arranged around a central courtyard planted with broad-leaved mountain trees.
The living, dining, and kitchen areas, nestled between the maple and birch forests, offer a constant connection to nature, creating a peaceful retreat from the urban hustle. On the second floor, a small flower bed between two children’s rooms varies in size compared to the first floor, emphasizing its presence and spatial relationship. Adjacent to the flower bed is a multifunctional room and childcare area that can double as a lounge, providing an additional cozy spot for children or couples to relax or study.
At the intersection of indoor and outdoor spaces, the design blurs boundaries: interior areas expand outward, while external spaces extend inward. Elements like light, sky, wood, and stone become integral to the interior atmosphere. The first floor’s floors and walls are intentionally left raw, serving as a natural backdrop that enhances the interplay of light and nature. The second floor’s bedrooms feature beige-toned flooring, creating a warm and calming ambiance.
The facade contrasts with the first floor’s form-fitting block by retreating and twisting inward on the second floor. This subtle twist reduces the sense of heaviness for pedestrians passing by. White birch trees sprout between the twisted first and second-floor blocks, marking the boundary and provoking spatial interest. To emphasize the twisted form and enliven the otherwise monotonous street, we chose metal as the primary exterior material.
The first floor’s foundation is grounded with colored luxe steel plates, adding a sense of solidity. In contrast, the second floor is lighter overall, clad with stainless steel louvers that reduce visual weight. Thanks to stainless steel’s unique properties, the second-floor block changes appearance over time, introducing a rhythmic, dynamic quality to the surroundings. The combination of two metal types with distinct physical characteristics creates the impression of two slightly different but harmoniously coexisting blocks.
Project Drawings
△ First Floor Plan
△ Second Floor Plan
△ Section Diagram
Project Information
Architect: Archirie
Area: 235 m²
Year: 2022
Photographer: Cheon Youngtaek
Architect: Yunchae Jung
Architectural Design: Archirie
Location: South Korea
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