The House of 3 Trees is The Realisation of an Architectural Fantasy

The House of 3 Trees is the realisation of an architectural fantasy – one that explores an alternate reality in which several historical events of the past century did not occur. 

The architectural fantasy explored by the architects for this house begins with the question of ‘what if timber resources were not depleted in the late Joseon Dynasty of Korea in the 17th to 19th Centuries?’ And following this, irrespective of the exhaustion of timber, what if globalisation had begun earlier, and had introduced the import of wooden materials from Russia, Canada, Northern Europe and Japan, making timber as afford- able as it is now? And finally, what if reinforced concrete structure had not dominated architecture in the 21st century? The hypothetical result is that timber buildings in East Asia would have continued to evolve. This premise gave the architects an opportunity to retain the culture of timber architecture dating as far back as 1,500 years in Korea, and to evolve it into an ‘evolved’ form of architecture today.

The wooden structure is a combination of ornamentation and structure, 

achieved by computer-aided design and digital-fabrication

Dubbed the House of Three Trees, the project reinterpretates the iconic wooden bracket systems ubiquitous in the East Asia timber architecture. Known as ‘Gong-po’ in Korea and ‘Dougong’ in China, this wood bracket system was the most symbolic part of East Asian timber buildings from both structural and aesthetic perspectives. The house perhaps makes a critical statement of today’s superficial application of traditional buildings – that of merely imitating traditional expressions, or in too abstract forms. Instead, the design for this house redefines the virtue of East Asian timber build-ings in its tectonic aspect, which is a combination of structure and ornamentation. It also serves as an example of how technology such as design computation and digital fabrication can reinterpret traditional architecture. Technology can give traditional East Asian timber con-struction the potential to evolve in a new direction.

Structural Axonometric

Three wooden trees form the forest within the house, creating an interior space that responds to the hexagonally shaped building footprint. These trees serve as anchor points as well as to support the roof. Apart from the structure, the wall enclosing the house needed to be insulated for the cold winter in Korea, as well as to tailor the visual experience while inside the space. As a result, people inside experience an enclosed space that is dominated by the tree structures, yet still have a curated view of the outside through the apertures. The change of time can be keenly felt through the sunlight’s movement as it filters into the gap between the roof and wall. It resembles the sunlight falling into a forest. In this way, the trees thus transforms into a forest.

Structural Models

The tree structure of the house is solely composed of wooden joinery. The construction method employing the traditional wooden bracket system does away with the need for any nails or other additive fasteners. 

Aerial view during construction

The footprint of the house follows the erratic shape of the site. Despite its irregular hexagonal form, the layout of the house is derived from algorithmic tools. This resulted in a guideline for placing 3 trees. Algorithmic tools also guided the design and analysis of the complex form of the trees. The final optimised result, in terms of construction ef- ficiency and logistics, is composed of 4,006 wooden pieces.

The house at twilight, within it’s surrounding neighbourhood

For the roof, the typical rural houses around the site served as the inspiration for the roof design and material choice. These rural houses were built in the 70’s and 80’s, and were designed according to construction standards set by the government – which resulted in flat roofs that have poor drainage, rainwater accumulation and water leakage problems. The solution back then was to cover the existing flat roof with a pitched roof made of sandwich panels. This incidental design invoked a sense of lightness – the roof appearing to be a thin floating form. This sense of light- ness is further emphasised by the use of asphalt shingles, which is a low-cost material. 

Additionally, other commonly used materials in the rural area of Korea were selected for the exterior finish of the house. These include plywood and plastic panels for the exterior walls. Polycarbonate corrugated panels are a common material used for the cladding of warehouses and greenhouses. This translucent material subtly reveals the plywood finishing inside, and similarly for the roof, helps to imbue the house with ethereal lightness, in contrast to the adjacent houses. Functionally, the panels also provide an additional air layer that increases insulation performance, as well as to protect the inner plywood from rainwater.     

Project Information

Project Name: The House Of Three Trees

Location: Gyeongsangbuk-Do, Republic Of Korea

Principal Use: Private Home

Architect: Firm Jk-Ar (Jae Kim Architects + Researchers)

Design Team: Jae K. Kim, Seoungbum Heo, Yesol Lee, Youngjune Lee

Design Period: July 2017 ~ March 2018

Construction Period: April 2018 ~ August 2018

Site Area: 271sqm

Built-Up Area: 68.58 Sqm

Gross Floor Area: 85.52 Sqm (1f: 68.58 Sqm, 2f: 16.94 Sqm)

Building Height: 6.35 M 

Exterior Finishing: Corrugated Polycarbonate Panel, Spruce Dimension Lumber, Arauco Plywood, Low-E Triple Glazed Window, Asphalt Shingle (Roof)

Interior Finishing: Larch Plywood (Local Product), Gypsum Wall Board With Paint, Rock Solid Floor Coating

Structural Engineering:  Jk-Ar 

Construction: Jae K. Kim, Seoungbum Heo, Yesol Lee, Minho Kim, Jinho Shin (Jk-Ar) + Myunghee Nam

Photography: Rohspace