Seoul, South Korea
The Boulder House, located near ‘Seolleung’, the former royal tomb that became a park in Gangnam, Seoul, is surrounded by multi-family houses, making it unsuitable for the single-family house.
The house won a 2020 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum.
On the other hand, the client, famous couple of movie stars, made a very high request for privacy because they have stalking problem from media and fans. In the paradoxical process of designing a home in an area where privacy is very unfavorable for a client whose privacy is very important, the building becomes a very unique feature that is not usually seen.
In the course of responding to the context, the client and the architect ultimately wanted to design a house that feels heavy and solid like a boulder.
The site has the best educational environment in Korea, so the land is very expensive. Pre-existing low-rise detached houses with less than 2 stories have been replaced by multi-housing houses with less than 5 stories or apartments due to the expensive land price. Although there was privacythreatened area, they decided to build a single-family detached house for their young children’s education.
The architect minimized the windows except the direction to the garden in the east to protect privacy. Especially Koreans consider the value of a southern exposure getting more sunlight, so it’s nearly impossible not to have any window southward. But this was a very exceptional case made possible to protect privacy from the numerous windows of the building on the opposite side. To make this rarely-seen characteristic of the building stand out, the architect simplified the mass as much as possible and the simple mass with almost no windows maximized the weight of the building. To deliver this weight as best as he can, he selected stone as the exterior finishing material.
However, just using stone as the exterior material does not mean he can deliver the massive weight we feel from a gigantic boulder. Unfortunately, unlike a natural boulder, the stones used in buildings are divided and repeated for construction, which distorts the unique pattern and scale of the stones.
Unfortunately, unlike a natural boulder, the stones used in buildings are divided and repeated for construction, which distorts the unique pattern and scale of the stones.
Just using a stone as an exterior finish doesn’t give you the feel of a boulder. By matching the stone pattern and the construction joint in parallel, you can see horizontal layers of different scales depending on how far from you look at the building.
At a close distance, the horizontal pattern of the stones is visible, and at a far distance, the horizontal construction joint looks like a natural pattern of stone, making the building look like a large mass of a boulder.
Architects: Atelier Jun
Client: Private
