moon hoon’s ‘rock it suda’ weekend houses in south korea

korean architect moon hoon has created an architectural practice centered on the confronting the boundaries of the discipline with various other modes of expression. his policy of ‘crashing, fusing, mixing‘ is most evident in a series of buildings for a bass guitarist client. the musician of amateur rock group ‘rock it suda’ commissioned an eponymous cluster of pensions, the term in korea for a weekend house. the new breed of accommodations has become particularly popular among urban dwellers, who flee to the remote suburbs for liberation from city life.

the pensions face a dry river bed and are sited in a forest that borders a dilapidated mining town
image © kim yong kwan (also main image) | all images courtesy of moon hoon

while most pensions are modeled after european chalets, ‘rock it suda’ aimed for an hyperbolic fantasy space, one that expressed the idea of a scaled-up playground while still capitalizing on the beauty of the surrounding landscape that borders a mining town. the six structures tectonically expand and contract while thematically centered on ‘ spain’, ‘barbie’, ‘stealth’ , ‘ferrari’, ‘cave’ and ‘korean traditional house.’ the architect shared exclusive images of his sketchbook with us as the exuberant and whimsical project took shape in his imagination and long before the loud blues, intense reds and vibrant yellows were made manifest.

summer views of the buildings in the greenery | image © moon hoon

deemed ‘play-chitecture‘ the pensions are additionally fitted with hammocks shaped like tails so that wind and human movement might physically express a more whimsical architecture, far removed from a stagnant box. enjoying the inherent theatricality of a short-stay accommodation, the buildings are intensely fantastical in nature with ‘spanish house’ sporting a pair of horns and a fetishized, all-red tribute in ‘ferrari house.’ the soft tails are supposed to be the liminal space between reality and the virtual realm of the architecture.

the hammock-like tails mark reality from the virtual interior space | image © kim yong kwan

of his process, the architect shared that he worked from the inside out, assigning a bright hue and concept to each volume then allowing each form to become its own dynamic organism. the flamboyant weekend houses inherit the landscape in variety of ways, namely faceted glazing and periscopic cut out. the architecture of enjoyment is clear in the cartoonish vivacity each pension and the designer’s animated view of the world finds its resonance in space. of the work the architect says: ‘architecture is alive! moving beyond its limits… also, living in the realm of imaginations… now that’s something to think about as you lie on your barbie pink day bed.’

view of the cafe | image © moon hoon

the spanish house is an architectural collage of a bull fight | image © moon hoon

the ferrari house is a bright periscope | image © moon hoon

view into one of the ‘tails’ | image © moon hoon

interior of the barbie house | image © yeum seung hoon

living area of ‘ barbie house’ | image © moon hoon

dining and living space views of ‘barbie house’ | images © yeum seung hoon

racing stripes and checkers mark ‘ferrari house’ | images © yeum seung hoon

vibrant reds and patterns meet landscape | image © yeum seung hoon

ferarri space interior | image © yeum seung hoon

‘spanish blue’ bedroom | image © yeum seung hoon

spanish blue is filled with interior light | image © yeum seung hoon

bull horns visible on the top of ‘spanish house’ | image © yeum seung hoon

(left) the living space of spanish blue | (right) view from the kitchen of ‘stealth black’ | images © yeum seung hoon

the bedroom of ‘stealth black’ contains two round windows that reframe the landscape | image © moon hoon

the outdoor cafe | image © moon hoon

the hammock tails are lit by night | image © moon hoon

the ‘rock it suda’ band often plays in the cafe that serves the pensions | image © moon hoon

night-time views of the short-stay hotel complex, tails and all | image © kim yong kwan

the architect shared pages from his sketchbook with designboom | image © moon hoon

interior spaces were informed by fantastic extra-terrestrial spaces | image © moon hoon

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