COURTYARD TRANSFORMATIONS

Abstract

"There is the paradox: how to become modern and return to the sources: how to revive an old dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization."

This project is for three houses in Heyri Art Valley, a new town in South Korea intended to showcase progressive Korean and International Architecture. In order to participate in a progressive international design culture the planners and architects of Heyri have looked to western models and overlooked Korea's traditions of architecture and urbanism. Like Gaston Bachelard's lament for the apartment dweller that has no cellar or garret, Koreans have undergone the recent loss of their traditional housing type, and its complex cultural and spatial relationships. These houses will reintroduce elements of the traditional Korean courtyard house within the context of the new town addressing the dual requirements of a modern house program and the building limitations as stipulated in town's master plan.