Place, Architecture, and Where the Mountains Meet the Sea
Seolhaeone is a place with a unique sense of locality, where the mountains and the sea converge. The majestic peaks of the Taebaek Mountains and the endless coastline of the East Sea blend seamlessly, creating a landscape that feels like a microcosm of Korea’s natural beauty. The scenery here offers a poetic and harmonious spatial experience that cannot be felt anywhere else.
The expansion of the Seolhaeone Clubhouse began in response to demands such as a shortage of lockers due to the addition of golf courses, the expansion of the restaurant, and the construction of a new golf cart garage. On the surface, it was a clubhouse remodeling project; however, in reality, it was akin to establishing a new master plan—one that needed to resolve the issues with guest, administrative, and parking circulation from the existing clubhouse while reflecting potential for future expansion according to long-term development plans. Accordingly, after reviewing the expansion area from various angles, it was concluded that a combination of horizontal and vertical expansion was the optimal way to organize the circulation and ensure construction rationality. Therefore, our primary focus for this project was to identify the most suitable structural system for each remodeling section and expand the areas accordingly.
Rebuilding the Master Plan
First, to address the shortage of locker space, the existing first-floor locker room was designated exclusively for men, while a second floor was vertically added directly above it to create a new women's locker room. Additionally, a flexible operational plan was designed for the winter season, allowing the first-floor locker room to be divided for both men and women. The existing restaurant space facing east was extended out to the terrace, securing a multi-purpose area that can also be used by general visitors. To the south, a detached annex was newly constructed for the start house and private dining rooms to respond to diverse customer demands. The newly installed front canopy and the roof of the expanded mass were designed in an asymmetrical gable form—combining a gable and a flat roof—intended to become a new symbol of Seolhaeone. Inside the primary expanded spaces, deep skylights were installed along the varying heights of the roof to draw a diverse amplitude of light indoors, giving the expanded areas a continuous and systematic lighting environment. For the western facade entering the golf course, wood was used to express a warm sensibility and dynamic variation, while the eastern facade facing the start house modernly reinterpreted metal eaves with a curved finish. Finally, a wooden corridor was installed along the section connecting the clubhouse entrance to the existing Seolhae Spa and Golftel, working alongside the canopy to serve as a new axis for the Seolhaeone master plan.
Canopy: A Symbolic Gateway: Horizontal Lines Connecitng Mountain and Sea
The canopy of Seolhaeone is not merely a structure to block rain and snow, but an architectural device that serves as a new gateway and reveals the symbolic identity of the resort. It acts as a physical frame that visually connects the existing Golftel and Seolhae Spa, while shaping the beginning and end of the experiential sequence that guides visitors from arrival to departure. Just as the gables of Seolhaeone were formed to connect the mountains and the sea, the roofline of the canopy horizontally extends this concept, symbolically linking the mountain terrain of Seoraksan with the sea of Yangyang.
Structurally, the 30-meter canopy features a composite system combining glulam (glued laminated timber) and a steel frame. Glulam members in 10-meter units are joined together by steel framework, with V-shaped glulam and W-shaped bracing added to the front to achieve both stability and lightness. The diagonally arranged double glulam looks like a flat facade at first glance, but actually forms a three-dimensional volume, while the curved beam treatment at the bottom provides a sense of visual stability. This structural interpretation was intended to ensure that the canopy is perceived symbolically from various vantage points along the visitors' path—including the entrance axis, the drop-off zone, and the parking lot.
Corridor: Modern Reinterpretation of Traditional Spatiality
The corridor extending from the canopy serves as a functional passageway linking the clubhouse and the spa building, while completing Seolhaeone's new symbolic axis. Inspired by the corridors of Jongmyo Shrine, it was designed as a neutral, intermediate space that possesses both outdoor and indoor characteristics, creating a rhythm that shifts between a solid facade and perspective openness depending on the density of the louvers.
Built on a steel frame to address future fire resistance requirements, the corridor reinterprets the structural patterns of the traditional Dapo (multi-bracket) style into a horizontal rhythm. Notably, by rounding the intersection where the corridor meets the canopy and applying a cantilever structure, both functional efficiency and formal completeness were achieved simultaneously.
