Selected project – Sunghoon Go – Always there, very personal

What does it mean to return to the place where I was born?

The place, where I was born and raised. Where my parents live. The place ‘Gunsan’ still remains strong on my mind. At the end of my studies, I had a feeling do my personal work. The project area is my father’s old cattle house in Gunsan.

My hometown is a very small town which located in Gunsan, a city on the southwest of Korea. The village is divided into a front village and a back village by the mountain. My old house is on the south side of a back village. The project area is my father’s old cattle house 20 meters away from my old house.

The old cattle house consists of two houses. It is located at the edge of my town so it faces to directly the rice fields and surrounded by abandoned natural situation. I decided to return to my home. I will work here as an architect, and at the same time make the rice farming to keep the agriculture.

My strategy is the transformation of the existing house. Using the Korean standard greenhouse module i want to get more relationship with the outside, and create the different habitats under different climatic conditions in an ensemble of buildings.

My proposal is the combination of private and public spaces which has in the middle the in between space. In the private space the tower provides my family a option for living together likea big family. In the big public working space, people could stay here temporary. For example, some small group who wants to farm here on weekends. During the non-agricultural season there will be a chance for the culture events together with the guest and local people.

I hope that this project could be an alternative thinking of the countryside in this time of depopulation and agricultural decline.