Architecture as a Background of Daily Life: Baebongsan Forest Library

At an altitude of 110m, Baebongsan (Mt.) is the only mountain found in Dongdaemun-gu. At its peak, Baebongsan Bastion (the remains and foundations of a stone castle built during the Three Kingdoms era), which is registered as no. 42 of Seoul’s cultural heritage sites, has been restored. Surrounded by residential areas and fifteen primary, secondary, and high schools, the Baebongsan Neighbourhood Park is well-frequented by the locals of Dongdaemun-gu. With the recent completion of a Barrier-Free forest walkway (4.5km) in 2018, the forest is popular among the elderly and locals of various generations, and so a similar direction was adopted for the forest library. Throughout the process of deciding on the location for the forest library, a proposal to demolish the old derelict park maintenance office, health administrative office, and public toilet, and to integrate them as one building with the library, was revisited. At the design phase, we also opted to include a common nursery room, turning the library into a multi-functional complex that would be able to cater to various generations in spite of its small size. In order to create the atmosphere of a forest, regardless of its location next to the main road, we made use of the original playground space surrounded by large trees. A spatial division was created naturally as we followed the positioning design to emphasise and extend out from the original trees and greenery. By placing the library entrance at the opposite side of the Barrier-Free forest trail entrance to welcome visitors, the forest library has been transformed into an extension of the forest trail itself.

By exploiting the height differences in the site, the building was designed to occupy two floors above ground: the library was placed at the upper floor, while the other functions were placed at the lower floor. The programmes at the lower floor were designed to be compact, fitting both sides of the corridor, while the library on the upper floor was designed to adopt an elongated manner while avoiding the original trees. The library entrance was combined with the café to create a childfriendly space, while a calmer and quieter space open sup as one moves deeper into the library. To minimize the space taken up by the building in the park, shared spaces within the building were also minimized, and each function of the building was made independently accessible from outside by using the forest trails and stairs. 

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