Following in the Footsteps of Madang-jip
The architectural projects we engage in are thought of as madang-jip. Through numerous site-visits and surveys in Korea, or sometimes through the work of other fellow Korean architects, we came to believe that the most universal housing to be found on this peninsula is the jip (house) with a madang (courtyard) at the centre, a so-called madang-jip. Ever since our urban hanok project in Bukchon, we were commissioned with a greater volume of housing projects in Daegu, Pangyo, Jeju and so on. The role of an architect as we see it is to make ordinary housing – including the hanok – embrace our lives past, present, and future; that is, ‘following in the footsteps of the madang-jip’.
The Origins of My Architecture: The House in Seodaemun
I learned a lot by living in a located in Seodaemun. Through this experience, I found that the was an architecture of subtlety and calmness, and yet it holds great splendour and beauty. Moreover, I discovered that the is so meticulously designed that it responds to heights and levels with a keen wit. The roof was raised to let light and wind inside while visitors are greeted by incremental levelings from the outside to the inside. I discovered that a is like a fragment taken from the (a wide wooden floor area) is created by covering the with a roof and the room inside is formed by framing the with walls. This means that in the sequence of ‘nature-madang-maru-room’, the wilder natural elements gradually draw about them a habitable human space that is also friendly and congenial. Meanwhile, looking at the light and shadow slowly changing in the , it occurs to me that the passage of time is visible not only in great architecture but also in an ordinary house. From that moment on, I thought that this would be the origin and future direction of any architecture of my own.
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