The building is placed on a sloping hill in a
suburb of Seoul,
near the North Korean border. The project contains two distinctively different
programs. The first one is a residence for a small family and the second one is
a L.P. music listening space. The client has a great collection of old L.P.s of
20th century American music and he listens to them with 1930’s antique stereo
equipment, mostly from the U.S.
Once a nationally favored anchorman of Korea, he is preparing
to retire and go back to his hometown area to rest and enjoy the rest of his
life with his wife and music. The music listening studio is to be open to the
general public or “whoever loves music.”
As far as I understood, the clients were quite spiritual
with regards to listening taste and philosophy. Furthermore, they have some
understanding on the culture and aesthetic of the North Western United
States. They told me they loved the
movie “A River Runs Through It.” They also told me, although they have never
been to Montana, they liked the clean, quiet
rivers of Montana.
I told them Montana also has great barns everywhere. The
barns are tall inside with limited windows.
Light penetrates dramatically into the tall, dark, and quiet space and
listening to music in that kind of space will be thrillingly spiritual. He
loved the idea and I started to design the building
The design started with a box. I intended the box to remain as simple as
possible, ruling out any formal expression outside. Then the box was split into two parts along
the north-south axis, following the direction of the hill and the open
view. Between the two masses, a water
garden was placed along with a floating, cantilevered steel staircase. This
allowed the natural features of the hill to the north to be connected to the
street and mountain further away through the void.
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