Photographer: Joonhwan Yoon | ArchDaily

Understanding Eco Brutalism: The Paradox of Structure, Sustainability, and Style

Olivia Poston — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0000

The built environment is expected to reduce carbon emissions, support biodiversity, and respond to changing ecological conditions, all while providing housing for communities and reflecting their cultural values. In this shifting landscape, a once-maligned architectural style emerges in a surprising new form. Brutalism, long associated with institutional gravitas and material austerity, is now being reframed through an ecological lens. This hybrid movement, known as eco-brutalism, combines the power of concrete with greenery and climate-sensitive design strategies. The result is a set of spaces that are visually arresting, conceptually complex, and increasingly popular among designers, urban planners, and the general public. This movement includes not only the direct lineage of 1960s Brutalism but also contemporary projects that, while not strictly Brutalist, share its material honesty, monumental scale, and use of expressive concrete forms.

Aewol Craft Shop & House / O Architects

Hana Abdel — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 23:00:00 +0000

Aewol Craft Shop & House is in Aewol, Jeju. It has a landscape surrounded by low roofs of single-story buildings that can be seen between Jeju’s stone walls and wide fields. The horizontally spread village has a quiet and relaxed atmosphere, which also brings peace among villagers who have long-standing relationships. Aewol Craft Shop & House has expanded the concept of a house by adding living spaces for an owner's family. There are the owner’s parents’ house consists of Jeju's representative residential types, which are Anchae[1] and Baggatchae2, and two tangerine storages. As the original environment of a house that forms one person’s life develops into a new family composition over time, the house works continuously as a framework to contain the expanded form of family. Unlike large cities, small towns in Aewol value connections between villagers. Since the culture is formed by the community that constitutes a village, connections between the house and the villages, connections as a member of the village, and connections between the individual and the family are considered important.

Millac The Market / LJL Architects + 2K1 Architecture

Hana Abdel — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

The site is located in a landfill area on the east side of Gwangalli Beach, and it has undergone urbanization since the start of the reclamation project in the 1980s.

Nature House / Concrete Workshop

Hana Abdel — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This project embarked in a detached housing area in the housing site development district, which is adjacent to Jingwan-dong Hanok village, has been started with the aspiration to achieve the dream of the client in 60s close to retirement. The client’s requirement was simple. The client requested two things: to enable the client to start a day overlooking Mt. Bukhansan when the client opens their eyes at a bedroom in the morning and to have a spacious living room.

Hybrid Houses: 15 Projects that Explore the Variations of the Home Office

Dima Stouhi — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 04:00:00 +0000

It's not uncommon to see housing complexes integrate commercial spaces at the ground level, but the challenge of mediating between the private and public realm on a smaller scale, especially with the rise of the home office, has forced architects to explore all aspects of the structure, from the topography it sits on, to the direction of light and wind, to the design and organization the domestic space. This interior focus explores different design solutions that show how architects and interior designers transformed their projects from a living space into a mixed-use typology, taking into account privacy, flexibility, functionality, and predefined spatial requirements.

Triangle Scape / UnSangDong Architects

Andreas Luco — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This is a building that connects the merchant community space of the alley market with local residents by reflecting the characteristics of the place located between the Myeonmok-dong market and the residential area. The Myeonmok-dong alley market community is a shared structure for local markets and market merchants in the surrounding residential areas, with the purpose of building a small community with intimacy and individuality for a small multipurpose space and a place for relaxation in the busy daily life of the market.

Shinhan EX:PACE / Atelier KI JUN KIM + Studio in Loco

Andreas Luco — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Background. Located near the subway station of Myung-dong, the site faces two streets crossing that lead to large shopping blocks. This area was originated decades ago as a gathering space for makers and merchants and then has rapidly grown to a high-dense urban block loaded with a wide range of retails, restaurants, and stores that attract tourists and shoppers at all times.

The Brick Trader's House / Architecture Studio YEIN

Andreas Luco — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 20:00:00 +0000

In Korean legends appear so many stories about traders of cattle, salt, silk, and trinketry, but nothing about a brick trader. In British fairy tales, however, a brick house is regarded as a model of robust house as exemplified by the third pig's brick house in Three Little Pigs. In Korea, bricks were used for tombs or burial mounds in the ancient times and with stones for the royal palace gates or Suwon Hwaseong Fortress in the Joseon Dynasty. Now easily available everywhere, bricks are affordable so as to be used for structural or decorative materials.

BT1 Building / DRAWING WORKS

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 23:00:00 +0000

Commercial building construction: Architect between lessor and lessee - After decades of development and huge increases in the price of land, construction in the Hongdae area has spread into the backstreets like a virus, with business value taking priority over everything. Buildings that undergo rapid changes with no consideration for regionalism slowly proliferate, then as time goes by, the unique character moves to another place, leaving only a veneer behind. This site located in an alley off the main street where Dangilli power plant was turned into a park. Following this, the surrounding land price rose a lot and a lot of new construction and remodeling took place here and there, a predictor of urban change.

Sinsa-dong Office Complex / JMY architects

Cristobal Rojas — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 17:00:00 +0000

1. Ugly-looking Ground

10M4D House / guga Urban Architecture

Hana Abdel — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:00:00 +0000

10M4D is a combination of a house and two workshops. An embroider mother and her ceramist daughter wanted a place where they could live and work. They named this project ‘10M4D (Ten months, Four days)’ as they desired to be free of any commitment for two months a year, and three days a week. We sought to represent the multiplicity of life by combining three different spaces: a spacious ‘Madang’ (an outdoor space that has specific programmatic and climatic functions) that allows one to grow and utilize, an airy workspace that allows one to produce, and a comfortable residential space that allows one to relax.

Dandelion Courtyard Building / Architecture Studio YEIN

Pilar Caballero — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 13:00:00 +0000

The alleys which were full of children playing and shoppers at stores long time ago have now become a quiet neighborhood where senior people spend time talking about the bygone days in front of the shops with the rare presence of customers and together with some pedestrians heading towards the traditional market. Likewise, throughout the long history of Gangneung, there have remained only the dwelling of merchants and the small and old restaurants along the lonesome alleys around the old-town market due to the urban extension and residential development.

INTERROBANG / Sae Min Oh _ bang by min

Daniel Sánchez — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 20:00:00 +0000

Cheongdam-dong, which is part of the Gangnam urban district in Seoul, remained as a relatively inactive residential area, between Apgujung-dong (middle-high class development area) and Samsung-dong (well known as business town).

Gwaneum-Ri House / Architecture Studio YEIN

Daniel Tapia — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 20:00:00 +0000

A mountain village in Gangneung where the ice skating heats of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics are held, Gwaneum-ri was named after the Korean Buddhist term, Gwaneum-bosal, who embodies the compassion all buddhas and local people believed that she appeared a long time ago. This area is vulnerable to fire due to the dry wind from the mountain to the East Sea under the influence of local climate in Gangneung. The forest fire that occurred in May 2017 spread along with the spring wind from the west to the downtown of Gangneung, damaging many houses and forests. Amongst them, a house in Gwaneum-ri was also damaged that the couple and their daughter who were recovering after childbirth lost their shelter. On this heap of ashes, we had to build a new house as if to plant an apple tree of hope.

Dugu-Dong House | / JMY architects

Daniel Tapia — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 21:00:00 +0000

Dugu-dong houses are the projects that three householders bought the site together and divided separately to build each house. This site - an irregular, triangular lot facing a planned road due south - was the most unsatisfactory at the time of parcel division. In terms of its area, the initial requirement of at least 65pyeong was reduced to 51 pyeong during the planning process.

[EARNEST CAPE] The Hill where the sky and the sea take a break / JMY architects + PLS Architects

Daniel Tapia — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 21:00:00 +0000

Ganjeolgot
Having the earliest sunrise on the eastern coast of Korea, Ganjeolgot (literally meaning the Earnest Cape) is a tourist attraction that contains both sweet stories and the natural settings such as breaking waves, cool endless sea, the white lighthouse, mailbox, and a space for rest. It is famous as a driveway between Ulsan and Busan, and the neighborhood lately sees the rapid increase of commercial facilities such as cafes and restaurants due to the rise of the floating population.

White Nest Housing / PLAN Architects office

Daniel Tapia — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 18:00:00 +0000

Gwangju Metropolitan City is one with the largest share of apartments among all types of housing compared to other cities. Baegun-dong Housing is located in the detached housing area at Nam-gu(southern part) which is the original downtown of the metropolitan city. And it intended to unfold the possibility as an alternative type of residence in the town that is prevailed with the 30 to 40 years old red brick houses and indiscreetly built one-rooms. This space that has been built as a nest for the wife, a painter, and the husband, an architect, and their child who is just 18 months old, is reflecting the different sense of value toward the life of the couple who declared the voluntary exile from the monotonous residential environment.

Bujeon Glocal Vision Center / Lee Eunseok + Atelier KOMA, HEERIM Architects & Planners

Rayen Sagredo — Sat, 23 Jun 2018 20:00:00 +0000

The planned B.G.V.C. (Bujeon Global Vision Center) on the adjacent site of Oncheon-Cheon (Oncheon Creek) across the Dongrae District in Busan has expressed its willingness to contribute towards the international community in its name. It aims to communicate with Busan and Dongrae District to provide hospitality and peaceful sanctuary for Oncheon-Cheon (Oncheon Creek) and Busan citizens, and to embody a modern Christian program which is rich and incorporates the city and nature. The purpose of the architecture is to be a landmark for missionary work, peace, and love.