The West Village / Doojin Hwang Architects

Architects: Doojin Hwang Architects
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Architect In Charge: Doojin Hwang
Design Team: Jeongyoon Choi
Area: 209.83 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Youngchae Park

Contractor: Janghak Construction
Structure Engineer: Hwan Structural Engineers
Civil Engineer: GeoTech Engineering & Consultants
Mechanical Engineer: Daekyoung Engineering

The West Village building, located in the West Village near Gyeongbok Palace, is a low-rise, high-density, mixed-use building. This area is full of multi-layered beauty of Seoul. To preserve historic and cultural ambience of the area, we proposed a typical ‘rainbow cake’ building, a concept developed by DJHA. This 3-story building incorporates both residential and commercial functions vertically.

To design an ‘ordinary but not ordinary’ building, we tried to create a building rooted in its location and tried not to disturb the ambience of the historic West Village area, where the building is located. Large northern window commends a panoramic view towards Mt. Bukak and Mt. Inwang. On the southern facade, a unique brick pattern was used as a visual filter to screen the view of the building in front while allowing sunlight in.  This unique pattern of bricks produces various shadow patterns by change of the time and the season, and makes the space rich and alive.

Main material of The West Village is bricks. We attempted to emphasize the natural quality of the materials and avoid using too many different materials. Likewise, the interior was finished with paint rather than expensive, unique finish materials. Residential spaces on the 2nd and 3rd floors are partitioned by built-in furniture, which is integrated with lighting. Lightings were installed at the upper part of the furniture; the indirect light illuminates the ceilings.