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Understanding the modern society is by no means an easy task. So many elements, in almost an unimaginable number, interact with each other, stimulating and altering one another and drifting away with time. A dictionary in your pocket will no longer suffice to explain the things and events that happen around us. Today we use our mobile phones to watch TV, listen to music, take pictures and browse the Internet. Is it then still a mobile phone? Or is it a camera? Or, what else should we call it? Ordinarily, when the scope of an object changes, it is minted with a new name, albeit somewhat similar to the old one. But more often than not, we are expected to change our perception (as a matter of natural course) rather than the linguistic indication. The same goes for a "house". As old as human history itself, a "house" has formed the foundation of architecture. With changes in time and culture, many new names were engendered to indicate the human place of residence, but they started from the same concept. Hence, the name "house." stubbornly survives, binding us to an abstract but common perception. A house began to be clearly differentiated as residential space when changes in the production system created the concept of work space. As different types of space were required depending on the use, and the so-called "system" began to focus on efficiency, the living space began to be separated from industrial space, and exhibited a growing tendency toward concentration. At the same time, as a "house" came under the influence of commerce, possibilities of urban residence began to be explored, offering residents the compromise of neighborhood convenient facilities and "officetels." More recently, commercial-cum-residential buildings have proved to be hugely successful in attracting the urban energy (i.e., people and money). But not one to stay still, the modern society is again seeking a dramatic change in course amidst the unpredictable flow wrought by digital technology. Residential space as we know it today is also being dismantled and converged into new types of house. The change is not limited to the advent of futuristic, ubiquitous homes. There are other, more realistic changes brought on by fundamental shifts in ideas. For example, people no longer stay in one place for long. There is a growing predilection to float, and the workplace sometimes becomes the home, and vice versa. Not many people today believe family and space to be the primary value. The house is now changing from a pure residential area into the central space of society. Additions to the house or of the house (to another space) that occur at a growing frequency sometimes leads to conflicts in the concept of space, and compels architects to come up with a creation that is the most reasonable convergence of the two. This book is a story of ten houses that attempt to answer the call of the time. All of them have been recently introduced through the monthly Space. They were briefly introduced in the magazine as recent works or as part of a series, but here they are probed more in depth - images are added as well as more details, as each one becomes the center of attention. Not only are they meaningful as individual works, but as a collection they provide useful hints at assessing the major housing trends of our time. As a matter of fact, the "houses" in this book are somewhat unfamiliar and unconventional. Included in this book as types of "housing" are weekend homes or pensions where the stay tends to be short and non-periodic, and sleeping quarters created in neighborhood facilities and workplaces. Nevertheless, the architectural elements witnessed in these places are rooted in the fundamental definition of a house, although somewhat different from the traditional one. Each work is introduced through an essay written by the architect, in its raw and unedited form. As the direction of each writing is different, it may deprive the book of a unifying theme, but it will be more helpful in understanding the actual thoughts and conflicts experienced by architects. Through these "houses," we can compare architectural designs that, each in its own way, attempt to reflect the program, functions and sentiments related to a house that change along with social and cultural trends. Each architect came up with a realistic answer that fulfills different sets of conditions and objectives, exhibiting new materials, experimental designs, rational problem-solving and rich emotional experience. Concept and expression, program and functions, materials and details - these are the keywords for building a house that, when put together, set the direction for the house. "What is a house?" The answer to this question may be either emotional or specific for the broad meaning that we tend to associate with a house. But no matter the stated answer, each of us, in our subconscious, has individual intentions about a house. In the end, what matters are our views on the house. After all, it is where our city, our architecture and our culture begin. -Lee Sang-leem, the editor of this book |
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Books Published by Seoul Selection 
