Earth House by BCHO Architects

BCHO Architects have completed this house buried in the ground in Seoul, Korea.

Called Earth House, the project was built to honour the late Korean poet Yoon Dong-joo.

The concrete-lined residence has two courtyards with earth floors, to which all rooms are connected.

Rammed-earth walls make use of the excavated earth while wood from a pine tree from the site is embedded in the concrete courtyard walls.

Photographs are by Wooseop Hwang.

Here’s some more information from BCHO Architects:

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Earth House – BCHO Architects

Earth House is a house of the sky. It is a house built in honor of Yoon Dong-joo, a Korean poet, who wrote beautiful poems about the sky, the Earth, and the stars.

It is a house which focuses on the primal relationship between nature and humans. It is built with careful consideration of constructional efficiency and our somatic senses.

The 14m x 17m concrete box is buried in the ground and contains 6, 1-pyeong, rooms and two earth filled courtyards. The ‘small house’ is open to the courtyard which is open to the sky.

The one pyeong rooms originated from the size of one kan (6×6 ja; 1 ja = approx. 30cm) which are just large enough for an adult to lie down straight.

The house has a small kitchen, a study, two resting rooms, a bathroom with a wooden tub and toilet, and a wash room. The rooms are all adjacent to each other and open directly to the earth filled courtyard.

Connecting rooms can be joined to create a bigger room. The house doors are small, entering the house requires making your body into a smaller shape.

The lateral pressure from the earth on four sides is resisted by thick concrete retaining wall and a flat roof and base plate. There is also a hidden steel column in the center wall that reinforced the structural plates.

Rammed Earth walls provide all the interior spatial divisions and the walls facing both courtyards.

The earth used for the walls is from the site excavation. Even though the viscosity of the existing earth was low, only minimal white cement and lime was used so the earth walls can return to the soil later.

Four gutters are placed in the corners of the courtyard for drainage. The house uses a geothermal cooling system with a radiant floor heating system under the rammed clay and concrete floor. Off-peak electricity is used at night to heat the small gravel under the floor.

A combination of passive cooling and geothermal tubes which are buried in the earth around the buildings keep the temperature cool in summer and warm in winter.

A pine tree which was cut down from the site, was sliced into 80mm thick discs and was cast into the concrete walls of the courtyard so as it decays, it will host small plants and new life will arise with time.

The wooden canopy protecting the entrance into the small house uses 39mm tensile wires.

Recycled lumber was cut into 30mm x 50mm wide pieces and joined with flat steel bar, keeping the material to a minimum.

All of the interior furniture and closets are also recycled wood from old Korean gates.

As Yoon’s poetry expresses hope for the future from times of great peril, which he tried to achieve through self-restraint and self-reflection, our hope is that this Earth House would be a house where we can reflect on ‘ourselves’ while living in the present era.

Architect : Byoungsoo Cho
Project Team : Hongjoon Yang, Woohyun Kang, Taehyun Nam
Location : 789-55, Sugok2-ri, Jipyeong-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun,
Gyeonggi-do,korea

Program : Library, Meditation
Site area : 660.00㎡
Gross floor area : 32.49㎡
Total floor area : 32.49㎡
Building-to-land ratio : 4.92%
Floor area ratio : 4.92%

Building scope : B1F
Structure : RC flat slab
Exterior finishing : Exposed board form concrete,
Rammed earth wall + non-structural wood wall
Rammed Earth Consultant : Keunsik Shin
Contractor : CPLUS International Co. Ltd.

Photographs : Wooseop Hwang
Design period : 2007.3 ~ 2009.2
Construction period : 2008.7 ~ 2009.2

UBPA B3-2 Pavilion by Studio Archea

Italian architects Studio Archea have sent us these images of their pavilion in the Urban Best Practice Area at the Shanghai Expo 2010.

Called UBPA B3-2 Pavilion and commissioned by the expo organisers and Italian Ministry of Environment, the structure houses displays from the cities of Bologna, Seoul and Shenzhen.

The metal structure is clad in diamond-shaped panels of flexible silicon fabric and the building is designed to be dissembled and reused easily after the expo.

Photographs are by Luciano Romano.

Here’s some more information from Studio Archea:

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To meet the express wishes of the client, the building is a simple rectangular box, 78×28 meters, completely free inside to create a neutral space that can accommodate the exhibits of the cities participating in the event.

As the project is part of a cooperation program between the Expo and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, the design also turned the concept of an industrial-inspired envelope into a mechanism for spreading natural light so that the space could be fully lit without using any energy.

To these ends, the roof was designed as a shed structure along the building’s long side, crossed by steel beams clad so as to form reflecting surfaces that spread the light from above.

The design was also conceived to allow for the building’s complete conversion and reuse. It was designed and built to be able to be disassembled and reassembled in another place.

For this reason, the entire building was made with mortarless technologies that let over 90% of the parts used in the construction be recovered.

The outside walls are a metal structure clad with silicon textile panels to turn the building container into a soft, vibrating surface.

location Shanghai, China
project Exhibition pavilion
client World Expo Shanghai 2010 Holding Company
strutture Favero&Milan Ingegneria
system Favero&Milan Ingegneria

plan 2007
construction completed in 2010
plot area 3,000 sq.m
built area 2,000 sq.m
contractor Shanghai Construction Company

Apartment 50, Unité d’Habitation by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

French designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec have fitted out an apartment inside the iconic Unité d’Habitation project in Marseille by Le Corbusier.

Called Apartment 50, the project is a lived-in apartment to be opened to the public from 15 July to 15 August.

The interior centres about the duo’s SteelWood collection for Magis (see our earlier story) and Clouds project for Kvadrat (see our earlier story).

Lighting includes their Lampalumina project (in our earlier story here) and Lighthouse lamp for Established & Sons and Venini (in our earlier story here).

Here’s some more information from Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec:

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It all started early this year when Jasper Morrison introduced us to the owners of one of the apartments in the housing block unit of the Marseille-based Radiant City.

The Apartment 50 is not a museum; it is a lived-in space that we remodelled – just for the time of the summer season.

We decided to feature a selection of objects from our collection of designs which seemed to rightly fit in this apartment and match the way the owners are living in it.

As an echo to Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé’s original furniture of the space, it seemed natural to us to articulate the remodelling around the SteelWood collection, Magis – including a table, some chairs and a shelving system.

Additionally, while remembering that Le Corbusier had a special interest in tapestries, we felt comfortable with the idea of installing a group of Clouds, Kvadrat up on the wall.

Finally, a Zip carpet, Vitra and two of our latest lighting designs, including Lampalumina, Bitossi and LightHouse, Established & Sons and Venini, complete this ephemeral remodelling project.

Opening days/hours: From July 15 to August 15, Tuesday to Saturday from 2PM to 6PM

Cité Radieuse
Unité d’habitation Le Corbusier
Appartement 50, 5ème rue
280 boulevard Michelet
13008 Marseille