Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

Cracked House

This is a project by Mass Studies and it is located at Gyeonggido, South Korea. Project's program: Single family house. There are twenty nine images for Cracked House.

: © Yong-Kwan Kim

Project details

Project name: Cracked House
Location: Gyeonggido, South Korea
Program: Single family house
Area: Site Area: 388.5 m2 • Total Floor Area: 286.7 m2
Year: Design: 2004.12 – 2005.5 • Construction: 2005.6 – 2006.6
More details: Site Coverage Area: 155.1 m2 • Building-to-Land Ratio: 39.9% • Floor Area Ratio: 73.8% • Building Scope: 2F • Structure: RC • Finish: Exposed color concrete, stainless steel mesh
Client: Ansoo Lee • Bokja Kang
Project by: Mass Studies
Team: Project team: Minsuk Cho, Kisu Park, Joungwon Lee, Soonpyo Lee, Vin Kim, Bumhee Han, Jongseo Kim, Bumhyun Chun, Deayung Kim, Jieun Lee, Sookyung Han
Others: Structural Engineer: TEO Structure • MEP Engineer: HANA Consulting & Engineers • Construction: Ansoo Lee

Project images

Designer's statement

This project’s genesis was a couple based in Seoul looking ahead to retirement. They desired a home within commuting distance of Seoul that would accommodate their changing family composition – and, thus, the very definition of their family – as their three children matured. In Heyri Art Valley, about an hour from Seoul, we aimed to resolve the issue as a two-story building with three bedrooms and three separated guest rooms, fusing their residence with a “mini-hotel” to accommodate the five family members.

The southerly rectangular mass of the second floor is divided on the north-south axis into two different entities. The eastern side of the building contains a two-story family home, while the southern side contains lodgings for guests, or “temporary family members.” These two main components are differentiated by function, but they can also be united through a shared space in the center of each level’s “crack,” or division, that leads outdoors. The two connecting spaces allow the structure to adapt fluidly as the family composition changes, acting both as one independent “house” appropriating the other, or as two units within a single house.

The modestly-sized building (287 m2) contains six bedrooms, three kitchens, five bathrooms, one powder room, one common room (living room / dining room / library), and two connective spaces of minimum but suitable proportions. Each space is uniquely characterized by size, lighting conditions, etc. and joins together like an intricate puzzle. The exterior is finished in green exposed concrete to blend in with the surrounding nature, and the wall on the southern end of the garden is covered in a stainless steel mesh to encourage the greenery to spread vertically and envelope the building.