Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

Element House

This is a project by Rintala Eggertsson Architects and it is located at Anyang Park, Anyang, Seoul, South Korea. Project's program: Site-specific architectural installation to Bisan Urban Natural Park, Anyang Resort. There are four images for Element House.

: © Park Wan Soon

Project details

Project name: Element House
Location: Anyang Park, Anyang, Seoul, South Korea
Program: Site-specific architectural installation to Bisan Urban Natural Park, Anyang Resort
Area: Floor Area: 72 m2
Year: Completion: 2006
Client: Anyang Public Art Project
Project by: Rintala Eggertsson Architects
Team: Architect: Sami Rintala • Project Architect: Eedo Space Architectural Design
Others: Building Owner: Anyang City • Contractor: Anyang City • Artist: John Roger Holte

Project images

Designer's statement

The Element House is made for passers-by who wish to halt, rest and make their own understanding and use of a simple space made of matter and light. This architectural structure, situated in a river valley marking an edge of a forest park and the Seoul metropolitan area, is made to offer a shelter and an experience for all senses to the people on their way to nature or returning back to city; it is an invitation space for the users of the Anyang Resort.

The larger main space is a cubical space made of steel. It leads to four smaller wooden rooms situated in four different levels, from a cellar to an attic. Each small space includes a suggestion for use and the symbolic presence of one of the basic elements (fire, water, air, earth). The chosen main materials, rusty steel and wood, imitate the colors of the surrounding nature. In one of the rooms is an art work made of colored concrete by Norwegian artist John Roger Holte. The project wishes to create an inner world where memories and even dreams may have their moment and place. It is bringing together an archetype of a house, movement in space and the expression of four basic elements into a three-dimensional collage.