Designed for ‘life after retirement’, the Dolmenic House in Goseong-gun, South Korea, modernizes a site that’s been occupied by the same family for eight generations.
Key features
Turtle Architects’ client was born and raised on the site. After the passing of his parents, he wanted to commission a home to spend his retirement, collaborating with the architects to reimagine the property. The traditional Korean wooden home where older generations spent their lives was disassembled, with its construction materials – the wood, and roof tiles and foundation stones – reused to build the new 200-sq-m residence. A historic well and dolmen (a rock tomb representative of the Bronze Age) stand as elements integral to the modern architecture.
Outdoor yards sit at various heights, in accordance with the site’s existing terraced form. Characterized by exposed concrete, the house is low with a lengthy stretch, mirroring the sprawl of the adjacent Bonghwa Mountain. Its clean-lined layout opens toward nature and minimizes views of the neighbouring village. Visible from every window, the focal point is a zelkova tree that was planted by the client’s ancestor. A living room and kitchen divide the house into a section for the client and another for guests. Connected to the upper yard, the kitchen was envisioned as a gallery to spotlight the well and dolmen. The lower yard protects against outdoor noise and is large enough to serve for family memorial ceremonies.
One of the client’s special requests was a sauna. The wellbeing space was designed as a gudul-bang, or customary system wherein a room clad in flat stones is heated by the warmed floor beneath it.
FRAME’s take
While rare, properties that have been owned by a single family for centuries are always up for iteration, ever-changing (or completely demolished) to accommodate the needs of modern life. The Dolmenic House proves that modernity doesn’t need to come at the expense of protecting one’s heritage. The project is both sustainable in terms of materiality and forward-looking in its mindfulness toward the client’s spatial requirements as he ages. Turtle Architects’ incorporation of the property’s historical features are a beautiful homage to his ancestors, expressing one’s lifecycle and the continuation of family memory.