Leaning House

Praud’s design for the Leaning House, a house with an office space in South Korea, is part of their theoretical experiment “Topology & Typology” – based on Anthony Vidler’s theory on typology – that tries to find out the harmony between the architectural form and the system of the building.

The site is close to the Chungpyong Lake and has hilly mountain on the back and view towards to the lake in front. As most of sites on hills in Korea, the Leaning House’s site also has a mismatch between topography and orientation.

Therefore, one of the first things to solve was the siting of the house in the position where it can have southern sunlight as well as view towards the lake. The southern part of the program box is lifted up so that the house can get enough sunlight from the South while the house itself orients to the East following the topography of the site. By lifting the box up, a new space was gained where Glass Box for family room can be inserted.

In the Leaning House, instead of putting a separate structure to the mass, the form of massing works as a structural system. The Leaning Box has a frame structure at the envelope of the box, and is supported by the vertical Glass Box so that it can eliminate redundant structural element.

This concept is driven by the architectural vocabulary “Topology & Typology” that Praud has been developing. The “Topology & Typology” is a theoretical experiment based on Anthony Vidler’s theory on typology. “Topology” focuses on the form of architecture regarding to the relationship between solid and void, while “Typology” develops the system of the building. “Topology & Typology” tries to find out the harmony between the architectural form and the system that can be called as “Contemporarism”, architectural language of contemporary architecture, just as Modernism became the architectural language, not the style, in a certain period of time.

Praud, Leaning House, Chungpyong, South Korea

By lifting up the program box, a new space – the Third Space – is gained. The original requirement from the client was to have bedroom, reading room and living room, and with having the third space, it was able to put a new living room inside and terrace on the outside.

The Third Space provides more gradation for the house. The outside terrace is not fully public yet not fully private either. Also, inside living room is also a semi-public area within the house before getting into more private area. This variation in gradation gives deeper spatial quality in a small house project.

To have the reading of the boxes, the Leaning House treats all surfaces as part of one box and has same material throughout the surfaces with continuous pattern. Zinc is selected to wrap the whole box with a single material as it can be used for roof, siding and exterior ceiling. And continuous diagonal lines across the envelop enhances the reading of the box.