Project: Three Roof House
Architects: PLAIN WORKS
Location: Gwanggyo, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Area: 2,712 sq ft
Photographs by: Kyungsub Shin
The Three Roof House is a new modern residence designed by PLAIN WORKS in South Korea. It was designed for a couple and their two children and it gets is title from its exterior design which is characterized by three separate roofs. It is located in a quiet, secluded area of a housing site in Yongin where it provides its inhabitants with security and privacy but also connecting them to the outdoor area that is located above the basement floor which is the garage.
‘Three-Roof House’ is a home for a couple and their two daughters who lived in an apartment for a long time. The couple who loves wild flowers and trees decided to leave their apartment, dreaming of having a home with a garden.
Nestled in a housing site in Yongin, the site is sitting at the end of a cul-de-sac receiving only few visits other than its residents, thus it’s secluded and calm. The site is a south-facing slope land with a rectangular shape running along a road, and there is a 2.8m level difference between the site and the road. Though it’s in a downtown area, its front and rear are both adjoining parks, so it offers a decent view.
The house takes advantage of such site condition to protect privacy and have an outdoor space through which inside and outside are effectively connected. The 1st basement floor adjoining the road is turned into a parking lot to overcome the level difference with the park in the north. The upper part of the parking is made into a garden, and this garden can be conveniently accessed from the 1st floor. As the north area is directly connected with the park, a deck is added to enjoy various park sceneries changing throughout all seasons.
This ‘Three-Roof House’ is characterized by simple house-shaped volumes which are naturally spread upon the volume of the 1st floor stretching out from side to side. It’s designed by separating the 2nd floor from the 1st floor, composing it with independent volumes according to required programs, and reorganizing them in response to the requirements of client and surrounding conditions. This design approach prevents the house from overwhelming its surrounding landscape and enables it to accommodate the needs of client more flexibly.
The house has a total of three floors including one basement floor. This basement floor adjoining the road houses the parking lot and a storage. Exposed above the ground, the basement floor’s outer wall uses the same natural stone with the retaining wall of a nearby house thus looks like a part of a residential complex. The 1st floor has a common room and a bedroom for the couple. It formed to have a long span running from east to west so that the building area can be maximized, and the west part of the mass is expanded to the south to secure privacy between the house’s courtyard and neighboring buildings. Eaves and a terrace are added to connect the living room and the garden more smoothly. The 2nd floor houses rooms for the two daughters and a family room. it’s designed to have a small size in preparation for the time when those two leave the nest. With an aim to resolve the disparity in floor area between the 1st and 2nd floors and allow each room to appear as an independent entity, three separate gabled volumes are constructed. The position of these volumes naturally defines the outdoor space of the 2nd floor. Surrounded by them, the south terrace becomes a cozy nook, and shaped by their misaligned arrangement, the north terrace blocks views of the neighborhood so makes users feel as if they were in the woods. The materials of the 1st and 2nd floors are arranged to have different colors and textures, and the perimeter of each volume is adorned with gaps and recesses to emphasize the segmented form of the house.
Consequently, ‘Three-Roof House’ appears as an assembly of independently designed rooms for each family member. This project is an attempt to secure the independence of individual spaces in terms of form or space, for Korean society in which apartment housing is predominant.
–PLAIN WORKS
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