WUJU JAE, JE
‘Wuju Jae, je’ which means a house with plentifulness, was built for a couple in their 50s and three children. Both of the couple spent their childhood in the countryside, went up to Seoul with their marriage, and have lived in several apartments constantly for more than 30 years. It is said that living in a midtown apartment is comfortable, but they have felt stuffy and decided to spend latter half of their life with nature as their retirement age is drawing near. They looked around for a site at Gwangju, near from downtown, in order that the couple and their children could commute, and eventually they found out the sunny, snug and warm site with clean air in well-arranged village near the forest, for this house. Then they visited the designer. Satisfied with the designer’s previous projects such as San Soo Eun and W+House, they shared their ideas with the designer.
“What make me exciting whenever I design a space of house are a fact that the house is a space not for many and unspecified persons but for specified persons, and the process itself to explore the persons. I also designed this house through the process to understand trivial stories, lifestyles and attitudes to life of the family. I heard about a reason to build this house, things they wanted to express in it, and a name to keep its meaning. ‘Wuju Jae, je’ which has plentifulness, is a very impressive expression.”
The designer started to map a plan about the space from its name, and discovered a clue from their lifestyles and attitudes to life known through numerous questions and answers. It is just ‘a house to be plentiful by emptying, a one-storied house with naive and tidy elevation in harmony with nature, keeping modern Korean beauty’.
Above all, the designer arranged this house toward the east in the light of close-range view and distant view according to the way of thinking nature, and laid out a courtyard where the light would always stay. Without giving up what might be lost due to southern exposure – they want to use the hill behind this house as a backyard or a vegetable garden, and to fill up