​This 3-story house is located in the old neighborhood of Hyojadong, bordering the west wall of Kyongbok Palace in the heart of Seoul.

The house encloses a central exterior courtyard on three sides.  The resulting U-shaped mass better intergrates the house with its surroundings and provides dramatic views of the surrounding city and mountains.

The salvaged brick facing on the exterior helps blend the house into the fabric of small buildings in the neighborhood.  The repeated pattern of individual brick units reflect the numerous surrounding brick structures as well as the stone walls on the Kyongbok Palace nearby.  

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Spaces are arranged around a landscaped central courtyard which opens to the southeast to capture maximum amount of natural light.  
Living, dining and kitchen spaces open onto the central courtyard through large sliding glass partitions, allowing in daylight and connecting the interior and exterior spaces.  Natural light enters the rooms on the second and third floors through different-sized windows looking inwards to the central courtyard and out towards the urban and natural landscape.  The interior expresses a minimalist palette of finishes that include natural oak  flooring, ash veneer, plywood, and paint.