Project Name: An architecture that preserves the memory of a forest fire

Architects: NAUxLab + USER
Architect of Records: EZI Architects
Location: Ulsan, South Korea
Size: 746 m²
Status: Built (2024)
Photographs: Suk Lee, Sungho Goh

Project Description:

The building is located on the site of a big fire in 2013 in Ulsan, South Korea. Such history defines the site’s locality, but memories of the past are disappearing. In this project, the architecture expresses the forgotten memories of the past as a building so that the memories are not forgotten entirely but preserved.

The client of this project took care of about 10 trees that had survived the fire by marking them with a red ribbon on the devastated land of the site. At first glance of such scenery, the design team decided to express the building with charred wood inspired by the painful memory of the fire and the surviving charred trees. The building is not the main character, but nature, the land, and especially the protected trees. Therefore, the layout of the building conforms to the site’s contour lines, minimizing civil engineering and becoming part of the existing nature. In particular, the southeastern courtyard, where three of the ten protected trees remain, creates a cut-out space where interior space and exterior nature communicate through the full-height curtain wall.

The east facade of the building is a mirrored surface on which nature finally overwhelms the architecture. Such design strategy again emphasizes that this project is not about celebrating architecture but the beauty of nature that changes with the seasons.

The design of the building mass is further developed with a doubly curved gable roof. The roof’s ridge does not run along the center of the building. Instead, a center line connects the two vertices on the diagonal plane, sublimating the building’s curved beauty into a three-dimensional double curve.

The first glance and entry sequence provide a holistic experience from which one can witness the harmony between the building and the surrounding nature. The entryway and water in front of the building control the speed at which people approach the building. Rather than simply crossing the water space, if you turn one or two times along the entrance road, your movement speed will inevitably decrease. At the same time, your field of vision will change, allowing you to view the building from various angles. Through this entrance route, visitors can fully appreciate the various sculptural beauty of the building’s curves before they enter the interior space.

Tan-Mok-Won is the first building in Korea to be composed of charred wood and to measure over 800 square meters. It can be said to be an architecture that satisfies all five senses, considering the tactile, visual, and olfactory stimulations provided by charred wood, water space, and sounds of nature, as well as the taste that can be pleased with the bakery inside.

Project Name: The Primeval House

Client: Naechon Woodworkers & Co.
Location: Seoul Art Center, South Korea
Size: 1,600 x 1,000 x 2,500 mm
Status: Exhibited Work (2024)
Architect: Suk Lee

Project Description:

The elevated house is a traditional house style that has been used throughout Southeast Asia since prehistoric times and is built by elevating floors from ground. This is because, due to the nature of the humid climate, which can make architecture vulnerable from frequent flooding, pests and diseases.

In Korea, evidence of similar architectural style in the lower reaches of the Nakdong River 1,500 years ago during the Gaya period can be seen through earthenware patterns discovered at the time and similar ruins discovered in Japan. “Gosang” in the ‘Time of Trees’ exhibition, prepared in collaboration with Naechon Woodworkers&Co.,Ltd. and master carpenter Kim Seung-jik, is intended to inform the public visiting the Seoul Arts Center of the basic principles of such prehistoric architecture by weaving logs and palm tree strings using the technology of the time.

Project Name: SPACE 昌

Client: Yangvan
Location: Changpyung, South Korea
Size: 45 sq-m
Status: Construction Document (2023)
Architect: Suk Lee, Dawon Lee

Project Description:

‘SPACE 昌’, located in Changpyeong-myeon, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do, a slow city, is a space where you can escape from everyday life and experience the changes of the four seasons, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When you arrive at ‘SPACE 昌’ along the stone wall road registered with the Cultural Heritage Administration, you will see a gate made of a burnt material called ‘Yakisugi’ between the concrete pillars with patterned bamboo shapes, a symbol of Damyang, awakening a new sense that cannot be found in the village. He stops walking.

When you open the front door and enter, spaces made up of new materials that harmonize with the wood, tiles, Korean paper, bamboo, and bricks of the existing old house reveal a restrained presence. The main building and munganchae, which retain the appearance of a traditional Korean house, show the history of this place, and the warehouse, which was covered with cement and blocked communication with the front yard and the distant mountain, was renovated with a new look, leaving only the wooden structure and roof, creating harmony between the buildings and Achieve communication between yards. The south window design, which was designed to emphasize the hieroglyphic origin of ‘window,’ captures the sense of place and history of this project as an architectural concept.

Project Name: Kangsanjae-X

Client: Kangsanjae Hanok Hotel
Location: Hongcheon, South Korea
Size: 135 sq-m
Status: Construction Document (2020)
Architect: Suk Lee, Dawon Lee, Seungjik Kim

Project Description:

Kangsanjae-X, which will be located at the end of Gorugae-gil, Seo-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do, will be located in a place that is close to perfect in terms of feng shui, with Nogo Mountain, which has a 311m high stone rock as Cheongryong on the left, and a ridge extending westward as Baekho on the right. Kangsanjae-X, which follows the already established Kangsanjae and the second Hanok construction to begin, is the first collaboration between master carpenter Kim Seung-jik and architect Lee Suk, exploring the sophisticated coexistence of the beauty of traditional Hanok and modern architecture that will offer the beauty of Hanok.

It’s a work of art. The Hanok and modern buildings, which are located in compliance with the slope of the site, are separated but have internal circulation lines, and the first design goal was to maximize the functional and eco-friendly advantages and disadvantages of Hanok and modern architecture. Hanok windows, doors, The second goal is to bring elements of Hanok, such as Hanji finishing and the client’s Hanji lighting work, into the interior of modern architecture to provide an upward experience from the somewhat cold exterior. The second goal is to carefully balance the gable roof, a symbol of Hanok, over the flat roof of modern architecture. The final goal was to realize the harmony and strange tension created by the two buildings when looking at Kangsanjae-X from inside and outside the site by extending and juxtaposing it in a natural way.

The Kangsanjae-X project is a bold starting point that creates a restrained harmony of traditional beauty and modern sophistication on the client’s site.

Project Name: Contained Space

Location: Changwon, South Korea
Size: 1,320 sq-m
Status: Design Development (2020)
Architect: Suk Lee, Dawon Lee

Project Description:

The construction of the second new port of Busan Port in Changwon is being promoted under the English name ‘Busan New Port’. The architectural design for the site, which already has a huge container dock in front, was carried out with the concept of ‘CONTAINED SPACE’. There are various architectural examples using containers, but most of them are fragmentary application cases. Most cases are container homes that emphasize the appearance of containers on the exterior by studying stacking methods, or focus on the interior.

CONTAINED SPACE is a space designed by harmonizing steel-concrete structures and container structures, and is a design work that studies the effects of containers and light on space. The 20FT container acts as a light well that illuminates the first floor space, and the 40FT container increases the height of the second floor space, adding a grand sense of scale and emitting light at night, expressing the unique charm of this architecture.

The view of CONTAINED SPACE from nearby apartment residents and relatively tall buildings was also considered in the design, and a landmark element was added through the combination of the huge text found on the container and square shapes of various sizes.