1968 seoul residence is reshaped with courtyard, annex and timber frame

A 1968 HOUSE HIDES DEEP INSIDE SEOUL

Tucked behind a long, narrow alley in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul, Saekdong House by Isak Chung and Jinpyo Hong transforms a residence originally built in 1968 through a combination of renovation and extension. Set deep within a landlocked plot and surrounded by neighboring buildings, the existing single-story house already sat unusually high, with elevated floor and ceiling levels intended to pull in more daylight and preserve views despite its enclosed position.

The architects chose not to correct these peculiarities so much as work with them. The entrance passage becomes a gradual transition from the city into a more secluded domestic world, while another inherited feature — an air-raid shelter beneath the house, typical of older Yeonhui-dong residences built amid tensions with North Korea — is folded into the new spatial sequence rather than treated as an inconvenient leftover.

A COURTYARD REPLACES THE OLD LIVING ROOM

At the center of the intervention, the former living room was removed entirely to create an open courtyard, bringing daylight and ventilation into the previously enclosed plan. The building coverage released by this subtraction was then transferred to a new annex in the southern yard, an area that had previously received little light because of surrounding construction. In other words, one room disappears so another can appear elsewhere — a fairly productive bit of domestic accounting.

The existing structure was reinforced with timber framing, while a low-ceilinged internal corridor connects the reorganized spaces. Outside, a jade-green FRP eave protects circulation from rain, and the heavy original roof has been replaced with a lighter, restrained gable. Below ground, the floor of the former shelter was lowered to create usable headroom, with a sunken passage between the courtyard and annex bringing daylight and movement into the lower level.

SAEKDONG TURNS CONTRAST INTO A DESIGN METHOD

The project takes its name from saekdong, a traditional Korean technique in which strips or patches of different colored fabrics are joined together to form a single textile. Chung and Hong translate that principle into architecture, allowing contrasting elements to remain visibly distinct while still belonging to the same composition. Old and new, timber and FRP, enclosed rooms and open courtyards all meet without being forced into visual uniformity.

That patchwork logic extends across scales: furniture and architecture, structure and finish, interior and exterior, main house and annex, as well as natural and constructed elements are treated as separate pieces within one domestic landscape. Rather than smoothing over the house’s oddities, the renovation makes them part of its character, turning a difficult urban plot, an aging structure and even a wartime shelter into ingredients for a home that feels intentionally assembled rather than simply updated.

project info:

name: Saekdong House
architects: Isak Chung, Jinpyo Hong

location: Seoul, South Korea

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