Family ties: Unsangdong Architects improve familial bonds through architecture
![Chronotope Wall House is located in the suburbs of Seoul in Gyeonggi do](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eceQPPGRBjo795DEDvdT2J-415-80.jpg)
Family life can be challenging – we’ve all slammed doors, we were all teenagers once. And designing for family life can be even more challenging – balancing privacy with communal living, considering the diverse requirements of different generations, and their relationships with each other.
Interested to play with the concept of the ‘wall’, Unsangdong Architects has employed a diplomatic programme for a large family living in the suburbs of Seoul in Gyeonggi-do, which uses the wall as a device for encouraging inter-familial communication. Who would have thought building a wall (Donald Trump’s foreign policy aside) could actually help to build relationships?
This scheme was a response to the requirement of the client to house three generations under one roof. ‘As a large family, they requested the first floor to be divided by a main space for grandmother and a shared space for the family and the second floor to be a space for the couple and their two daughters, but have it be made so they are independent yet together,’ says YoonGyoo Jang, principal architect at Unsangdong Architects.
Using walls as a device, the architects were interested to recast the prototype of a traditional house.
Responding to these different purposes of space was important and rooms are clearly delineated as autonomous boxes, yet Jang also designed moments that would integrate circulation and create diagonal sightlines inside the two-storey house. Connecting spaces join private rooms with communal areas and on the upper floor a courtyard opens the rooms up to the landscape.
The exterior of the red-brick house is quite severe geometrically, with extending wings that are reminiscent of how steel or glass are often used. ‘It was the client’s request to use bricks and they asked us to choose the color and texture freely. Though brick as a material has advanced in size, color and texture we wanted to return to the basis of the image of a house and chose the basic size and color of red bricks to create Wall House,’ says Jang.
Disrupting the classic red-brick house prototype, the architects exposed the brick inside the house too, using its materiality as a design feature to create unity between indoor and out, while adding exposed concrete, black steel and birch wood to balance the heaviness of the brick with more materiality.
The client was a large family of three generations looking to live together under one roof
Exposed red brick is used as a design feature inside as well as outside
A terrace on the second floor of the two-storey home
The structure of the house is built from reinforced concrete structure
The house is geometrically bold and challenges the surrounding suburban environment
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Unsangdong Architects website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Architect Byoung Cho on nature, imperfection and interconnectedness
South Korean architect Byoung Cho’s characterful projects celebrate the quirks of nature and the interconnectedness of all things
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
2023 Seoul Biennale of architecture invites visitors to step into the outdoors
Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2023 has launched in the South Korean capital, running themes around nature and land through the lens of urbanism
By SuhYoung Yun Published
-
Tadao Ando’s ‘Space of Light’, a meditation pavilion, opens in South Korea
Tadao Ando’s ‘Space of Light’ pavilion opens at Museum SAN in South Korea
By SuhYoung Yun Published
-
Seosaeng House is a holiday home designed to capture the rising sun
Seosaeng House, Studio Weave’s first project in South Korea, is a clifftop holiday home perfectly designed to capture a new day dawning over the East Sea
By SuhYoung Yun Published
-
K-Pop hit factory gets a futuristic new office in Seoul
UNStudio completes headquarters building for leaders in K-Pop scene YG Entertainment, in Seoul
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Brighten Hannam brings luxury living to Seoul’s trendy Hannam-dong district
Brighten Hannam by South Korean developer Shinyoung, architects Urban Agency and architecture studio Intg is Seoul’s latest luxury residential offering in the trendy Hannam-dong district
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Hana Bank private lounge merges minimalism and the digital world
Hana Bank reveals a new private lounge in Yeouido, Seoul, courtesy of South Korean design studio Intg
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation marks Herzog & de Meuron’s South Korean debut
Herzog & de Meuron’s South Korean debut is a triangular triumph for ST International and its SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation in Seoul
By Andy St Louis Published