This project is a small hideaway house harmoniously integrated into its natural surroundings of woods and streams. The location, just an hour away from Seoul, offers a unique opportunity to experience the change of lights and views in four different seasons. The design, with its overall shape derived from two intersecting circles, creates open spaces inviting nature, providing various scenery and sunshine. The house's name, 'Mueonga,’ means the House Without Words, which is a nod to Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, emphasizing the belief that the beauty of space should be experienced, not explained.
Our journey with this project began almost ten years ago when the client graciously invited us to the site. At that time, he had a vague idea of what he wanted. Through numerous heartfelt conversations and site visits, we co-created a house for meditation and reflection. The house was designed to seamlessly blend into its environment, allowing visitors to experience the passage of time and seasons through the play of light and scenery. Ilya & Emilia Kabakov’s The Palace of Projects inspired a seamless circular space. The circular shape was chosen to maximize sunlight and provide unobstructed views in all directions. The centers of the two intersecting circles are significant spaces, one of which is located outside for observing the sky, and the other one inside is for permeating the sunlight into meditation space.
The primitive form of space was circular. We imagined a circular structure facing nature, like an igloo, Mongolian ger, or Chinese tulou. The space made by two adjoined circles flows without obstacles. Visitors experience liquid space connected and bisected. Lights and shadows from various directions enrich the space. The center of a circle becomes the place to look up at the sky outside, and the other brings the sky into the inside space.
The House Without Words is a place for sensory experience. No explanation or functions are needed. Just following the curved air will take you deep inside yourself. It is also a place for spatial experience and meditation alone in nature. The circular structure stands in place like a heavy rock in the woods, making visitors lose their sense of direction. Only the play of light and shadow through time and seasons enriches the space.
