The return of the hanok, the traditional Korean house, was declared by architect Doojin Hwang in his book Hanok Returned (2006).▼1 Literally, the term han-ok (韓-屋) means ‘Korean-house’, but it is applied more broadly to refer not only to residential houses but also to all kinds of traditional Korean buildings. The coinage of this term intended to distinguish Korean buildings from the Western versions known as yang-ok (洋-屋) at the turn of the twentieth-century when Korea experienced an influx of modern Western cultures.▼2 Indeed, the hanok is distinctive from Western or modern buildings, owing to its unique features, such as the platform, wooden structure, and curved roof, which is tiled in general. The floor-heated ondol room and courtyard madang, among others, are also considered valuable characteristics. As expected, however, the hanok has been gradually replaced by the yangok since this transitional time, and a great many hanok buildings were destroyed during the rapid modernisation period in the latter half of the century. The value of the hanok was readily neglected because it appeared pre-modern and, probably, too common in Korea.▼3 Consequently, there were various calls for self-reflection concerning this needless destruction of tradition, and a movement to revive the traditional building type has emerged.
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Yong-Hee Lee is a PhD candidate at Department of Architecture, Korea University. His research focuses on ‘Contemporary Hanok’ that has boomed since 2000. Under Prof. Hyon-Sob Kim’s supervision, he published several articles such as ‘Discussing the Continuity between the Traditional and the Modern in Choi Wook's Hanok Renovation’ (2014) and ‘Type Classification of Contemporary Hanok’ (2016).