Shaping Architecture Through Conditions: Layer-Layered House | On architects

SPACE June 2026 (No. 703) 

 

 

 

 

 

An Experimental Urban House in a Layered Housing Development Area
Large-scale residential developments are being carried out under the banner of balanced regional development or regional integration. In Ulsan, most of these developments have emerged along mountain edges or through the cutting and filling of mountainous terrain. Within these residential districts, often shaped by the logic of development, this project proposes an experimental house composed of multiple layers that explores new possibilities for urban living.​

 

Layering Nature and the City
The innovation city has a distinctive linear structure, formed along the boundary where the existing city meets the mountains. It has been organised as a car-oriented residential area, while facing a landscape where near and distant mountain ranges overlap.​

 

 

 

 

 

Layering the Exterior and Interior
To organise the interior space of the house in relation to the city, the outer layer has been deconstructed so as to create intermediary spaces that act as the first layer of engagement with the urban context. The exterior layers allow for efficient circulation and draw the natural world into the house, expanding the spatial experience and introducing temporal markers within everyday life. Within the interior, the spaces facing the courtyard and spaces differentiated by function are enriched by inserting internal layers.These layers extend and deepen the relationships between spaces, sometimes drawing in vertical light and at other times suggesting new functions.​

 

​Layers of Flexibility Within the Overarching Programme

The layered spaces, which simultaneously possess the quality of both exterior and interior, acquire flexibility according to different situations. Through partial revolving doors, folding doors, and fullyrevolving doors, spaces expand or contract depending on the circumstances, connecting the city and the house into a continuous whole. Programmes are reinterpreted according to spatial use, proposing layered spaces that accommodate a wide range of activities.

 

 

 

Image courtesy of On architects

 

Image courtesy of On architects

 

 

Bush Clover Formwork Exposed Concrete
Bush clover, planted to restore the plant life damaged in the process of residential development, paradoxically began to destroy the existing vegetation due to its strong reproductive capacity. Over time, it became part of the landscape of these developments, and efforts began to remove it to recover native vegetation. Recognising this as another scar as a consequence of development, the project sought to remember it through architectural materiality, transforming this trace into part of the residential landscape by experimenting with bush clover exposed concrete.​

 

 

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