SPACE-A House Founded on Memory: Moon Sun Jae

SPACE July 2026 (No. 704)

Axonometric diagram ©Lee Dongmin

A House Founded on Memory

Moon Sun Jae is a house designed for a humanities professor whose parents were both poets. Built on a site where the poet couple once lived and amassed personal memories, it serves as a modest weekend retreat and a quiet community space for writers. The project seeks to honour both the literary legacy of the previous generation and to create a sanctuary in which poetry, literature, and the surrounding landscape may continue to be woven together within contemporary life.

Here, architecture does not claim to reconstruct memory or preserve the past. Instead, through a non-monumental attitude that retreats into the background of the surrounding landscape and everyday life, it allows memory to be experienced anew in the present. Rather than inventing a new form, the design process was one of reading the layers of time embedded in the site, acknowledging the views that had long existed there, understanding the ways in which people had inhabited it, and translating these qualities into space.

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Architect

Youm Sanghoon (Yonsei University) + Choi Sunyong (Gwangju University)

Design team

Yonsei University – Kim Minji, Kim Hanjune, Lee Dongmin, Hong Sumin / MUYE Architectural Design Group (Lee Siwoo)

Location

Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

Programme

single house

Site area

620m²

Building area

120.08m²

Gross floor area

120.08m²

Building scope

Parking

Height

4.15m

Building to land ratio

19.37%

Floor area ratio

19.37%

Structure

Exterior finishing

brick, exposed concrete

Interior finishing

water-based paint

Structural engineer

K. Engineering

Mechanical and electrical engineer

Kodam Engineering Group

Construction

CHOROKSUN (Bae Yongeun)

Design period

Apr. 2023 – Jan. 2024

Construction period

Mar. 2024 – Jan. 2025

Client

Kim Sungyeun

Furniture

dbdbSTUDIO (Jang Dongyoun)

Landscape architect

Landscape Design Studio KnL + WM

Lighting

Min Younghee

Youm Sanghoon

Youm Sanghoon graduated from Seoul National University and studied at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture. He is currently Professor of Architectural Engineering at Yonsei University. His work spans a wide range of design and research projects centred on the relationship between architecture and the city, and has been exhibited at institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. He curated the Guest City Exhibition of the 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism and received the Korean Institute of Architects Award for the Yoon Dongju Memorial Hall project.

Choi Sunyong

Choi Sunyong studied both Architecture and Fine Arts at Ewha Womans University and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Architecture. After gaining professional experience at BCHO Partners, she established So Wall Architecture & Design. Together with Professor Youm Sanghoon, she worked on projects including the Yoon Dongju Memorial Hall and a single house in Yongdae-ri, Angseong-myeon, Chungju-si. She is currently Professor of Department of Architecture at Gwangju University, where she combines professional practice with teaching.

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A House Founded on Memory: Moon Sun Jae

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