The first house
Kyung Roh

The first house

B.U.S Architecture (Studio B.U.S) as Architects

# Building a building on a small land: a cross-section is a plane


There is a small land of less than 20 pyong (19. 76 square feet). Applying it to the Seoul City Building Code, its building coverage is less than 60%, meaning its building area on which to raise a building is less than 12 pyong (11.86 square feet). There is not only the coverage rate. In the residential area of Korea, Architectural Slant Line for Daylight is applied to the north of the land. The building which has been raised one floor after another is cut off by this invisible building limit line, and, to make things worse, part of the first floor has to be vacated for the parking space. Even worse, a certain amount of space inside a house should be set apart for a vertical traffic line connecting each of the floors. Building a building on a small land is like walking a tightrope trying not to be off the limit line of structure. A floor plan drawn to max out the limit line would leave most of the client in dismay. Yet, there is no compromise when it comes to the limit line of structure. If you cannot beat a system, join it: you have no choice but to build a small house unless you own a large land.


On the while, there is something more lenient than the limit line of structure, and that is the cross-section limit line of structure. It whispers some sweet words into your ear, "Live up to some conditions, you will be able to build this high building on your small land." This is the beauty of the small land. To build a building on this small land, we brew a project, thinking a cross-section is a plane and did not think of the plane until the outline of the project came out. In this project, a cross section was a plane.


The volume of a building was set from the beginning, which is the maximum area, imposed by the limit line within which to build a building on a small land on the budget. Deploy the programs needed for your new life, keeping this volume, and try to modify the size of the space as well. Depending on how you organize them, your house will have completely different characteristics - a house for holding exhibitions , a house for a total privacy, a house whose living taking precedence over anything else, a house whose bedrooms taking precedence over anything else, a house for throwing parties, a house for economic activities. While proceeding with your project, you can get an indirect glimpse into what lives your clients have led. The project was completed through the compromises and understanding of each other's life. The first floor will become the space for the work and commercial activities they wanted to do. Since the space leads to the parking lot if you open the folding door, you can expand it weather permitting. The front door is separated from this space. It is for separating things happening on the first floor from those going on the other parts of the house. Once you enter through the front door, you will be invited to the space for washing your hand. You will be invited to more public space before entering the room. The second floor will be dedicated to the living room and kitchen for the husband and wife to meet their guest and spend most of their time. The third floor will serve as the most private space for the bedroom, the dressing room, and the restroom, since they hoped that the bedrooms will be only for the couple. The slant wall caused by the limit line of structure makes the bedroom space taller in its height. We lowered the level of the bedroom for storage space, which caused the kitchen on the second to be separated from the living room space and turned the bedroom and the restroom/dress room into different spaces. The fourth floor is for working. The volume cut off by the limit line of structure becomes a rooftop terrace. They wanted they could get to the rooftop directly from the workroom.

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