活力街头，创新公寓设计

Besides the apartment, multi-housing in Korea is one of the most common housing.

Generally, on the low part of the multi-housing there is a parking lot, small shopping area or an office. The top floor among the upper three housing floor is mainly used by the owner of the whole housing.

Multi-family housing, which is arranged in the location of Icheon, Gyeonggi-Do, is right next to a supermarket which is the end of the traditional market street holding ‘5days market’. The client hoped their multi-family housing to include two-floor of living facilities, upper part of lease for residence and a residence for the owner on the top floor.

Before the client required a design, he had already received a design format made by other design office. But the result did not differ from other mediocre multi-family housing, so he ordered a new design. Although it is not situated on the main street, it is a place where is easily exposed to a traditional market and a big supermarket. He desired the street landscape to be full of energy more than anything.

In the narrow street, the site had both diagonal plane control by street width and sunshine restriction. So in the middle of the process, almost every building type was terraced building type or diagonally shaped. But it lacked something, so we decided to start from the zero point.

We analyzed the existing multi-family housing again, noticed that those housing had balcony expanded, using the space for living room, rooms, or had a window on the balcony so that the three dimensional form disappears from the outside. Also based on the research, we realized that most of the users preferred to have external balcony rather than internal one.

Thus, to get away from the standardized appearance of the existing multi-family housing, we decided to arrange the open balcony on the outside of all housing, and use the diagonal plane control, sunshine restriction asa major element of the external facade design. Actually by connecting the inside and outside, the balcony is a small courtyard that can be used for laundry drying, storage, Jang-dok-dae(platform for crocks of sauces and condiments) and air conditioner outdoor unit.

From the first stage, we suggested to use only one material for outside. Since there are so many materials, colors and signs that lead to distraction, we needed to tone down made the black granite stone to be greyish by testing various materials. Due to the glitter in Ma-cheon-suk is mostly used to show off the surrounding motel etc, however if the finish is dabbed the stone could convey different feelings using subtle color and sunlight, and also the special texture of the material.

Because of its different appearance from neighborhood, too conspicuous material may be harmful to be recognized. This completion of construction gives the formative impression instead of oppressive atmosphere through the balcony that is rhythmically set and makes the street vitality and energy.

Fortunately during the construction process, construction office and the officer could feel difficult but enjoyed the construction. So they could finish it, pleasantly until the end. The client is very satisfied about the fact that rent was rapidly completed in better conditions than other multi-family housing which was built in the same period.

The interesting thing is that the most advantageous person is not the construction office or the client but first-floor cafe owner.  It is widely considered that many people visit to explore the building itself.