© Courtesy of Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

Architect: Hyunjoon Yoo Architects
Location: Choongcheongnam-do, South Korea
Project Team: Hyunjoon Yoo, Insil Son
Project Area: 161.02 sqm
Project Year: 2012
Client: City of Gongju
Photographs: Courtesy of Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

Site

The site is located between a highway, a country town, and agricultural fields. The site occupies the corner of the block. And there are two more buildings in the same block; one is a box-shape storage and the other is a traditional style building.

© Courtesy of Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

Program

This is the third of country community center roof series. This small building is for the elder people of countryside of Gongju. About 30 people of grandfathers and grandmothers of this small town use this facility for their rest between their farming. The clients requested a big living room, a kitchen, two rest rooms and two rooms; one for females and other for males. Therefore the basic program of this building is very similar to a house. The difference is that this house must be very inexpensive to build.

© Courtesy of Hyunjoon Yoo Architects

Design Process

At the beginning of this project, the program was very simple and the budget was very tight. Besides, the clients wanted to have a landmark building for their town, which is visible from their agricultural fields. With all these conditions, we decided to focus on one thing for its design; the roof. We wanted the building changing its shape from every direction. And also, we wanted the building to harmonize with the surrounding hills and mountains. And the roof shape must be well matched with the exiting traditional style buildings in the neighbor.

Plan

First we make the required space as a simple box to minimize the energy loss according to the clients’ request. Second we set another box enveloping the previous box according to the property line. The gap between two boxes creates the in-between space mediating the farm and the room. Third we lifted the roof of the bigger box to create the curved roof line harmonized with the surrounding view. Now we have an inexpensive country community center which has hundreds faces from every direction.