Seoul-based architecture firm TRU Architects has built a weekend house framing Bukhansan mountains surrounding it, the house is a simple and elongated volume that evokes traditional Korean houses. 

The house, named Bugok Friday House, is located in the suburbs about 15 minutes by car from the border of Seoul and designed for a family living in Seoul, South Korea. 

The family wanted to construct a house where they could come and rest quietly on weekends. 

The site was used as a resort area for a weekend outing of Seoulites 20-30 years ago, but now it has become a residential area for people who want to enjoy the quiet rural atmosphere.

Surrounded by panoramic ridges of Bukhansan mountain, the site comprises several peaks that are connected and a stream flows along abandoned train tracks in front of the site.

The family's goal was simple; they wanted to enjoy in a space where both the house's indoor and outdoor catch the views of the stunning mountains and a quiet village.

To create this simple mass, the studio is inspired by the panoramic view, and the architects started by placing a house of straight mass along the view. 

The overall design of the house evokes the simple shape of 'hanok', a traditional Korean house built with a simple combination of sloping roof and walls. 

The layout of the house sits on a narrow and long plane of 18 meter by 4 meter and the program of the house includes dining room, shower room, bedroom - which are arranged in a row along the view. According to the studio, "it helps family take a quiet rest looking at the scenery wherever they are."

Encompassing a total of 80 square meters, of which about 23 square meters is conceived as an ‘semi-outdoor space’, an outdoor space covered with a roof, such as Daecheong-maru and Toen-maru. Maru refers to wooden floor balconies and terraces of traditional Korean architecture. 

As the architects explain, "they are used as a space to communicate with family members or to enjoy the view." 

However, in order to cope with the hot and rainy summer climate in Korea, an empty space is kept in between the floor and the ground to make cool wind pass through.

The studio uses extra overhang roof supported by a separate wooden structure to protect rooms from direct hot sunlight in summer. The overhang depth of roof is adjusted to allow winter sunlight to heat internal living areas. 

While indoor spaces are gently illuminated by the indirect sunlight reflected in the yard covered with bright sand, the corrugated steel panel used for the roof is also used for the formwork of the exposed concrete wall to create a contrast between the patterns of incised and embossed. 

The depth of the shadow on the stripes created by the sunlight makes us vaguely recognize the passage of time of the day.

The architects maintained landscaping within the site in a minimum level to get visitors focus on the surrounding scenery. They planted flower trees outside the window, only in the place where the eye could reach, as a ‘view target’. 

"Through the window, families can see the change of seasons by a total of 5 flower trees with different flowering time, such as apple trees blooming in April, lilacs in May, mountain ashes in June," the studio added. 

"The dining room, also used as the kitchen, has a level difference on the floor on each side. It helps people who cook standing up communicate comfortably at the same eye level with people who eat sitting at the chair."

The architects added that "‘Bugok’ is the name of the area where the site is located, and ‘Friday’ is derived from the name of the native in the novel Robinson Crusoe." 

"In order to enhance features of the weekend house, we reduced the convenient functions of home and maximized the space for leisure and relaxation." 

These days, more people want to build a house in a beautiful place and have a quiet relaxing life, just like the experience you can have in a ‘Jeong-ja’, a Korean traditional arbour. Bugok Friday is a house of reinterpreted shape and space of the relaxing house with modern materials.

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Project facts

Project name: Bugok Friday House

Architects: TRU Architects

Location: Yangju-si, South Korea 

Size: 80m2

Date: 2021

All images © Studio Worlderful

All drawings © TRU Architects

> via TRU Architects