Architects:ON Architects

Area :78 m²

Year :2016

Photographs :Joonhwan Yoon

Site Area : 142m2

City : Ulsan

Country : South Korea

The most important issue when planning the design of the house in 2014 was like "FAR Game: Constraints Sparking Creativity" ,which was the theme of the Korean Pavilion in the Venice Biennial, 2016. This land is a class 2 general residential area, so an architect can build a building with a 60% the building to-land ratio and a 200% floor area ratio. It is common to design a three-story building with a 60% building-to-land ratio and to design the fourth floor with a 20% building-to-land-ratio. However, the land area (142m2) was so small that 20% of the area was only 28.4m2. It was important to find alternatives to look for a maximum floor area ratio to meet what the building owner required without any loss.

Site Analysis

The land used to be an old residential area in Ulsan. The target site had been redeveloped with a new apartment complex and became a commercial area because of a new 20m wide road to the north side. Also, it was possible to secure the height by receiving the right of light from the north with the road. This made the first floor higher and allowed the architect to feel free from any height restriction on the building. In the surrounding area, the three-story buildings with the same building-to-land ratio and floor area ratio were built on the front of the 20m wide road. This resulted in the creation of a stuffy urban landscape. Therefore, the front part of the first floor, which was higher than the other floors, was made of glass, and the road side of the second floor was empty to create openness. The outdoor stairs were made of bent punched metal to create an urban scenery of day and night. We hope that this small building will bring a chance to access commercial buildings and cause a life change in the desolate urban landscape.