About this place
A small contemporary building in Seochon — the neighbourhood west of Gyeongbokgung Palace, known for its preserved low-rise fabric and the architectural experimentation happening within its traditional street grid.
Seochon (서촌, 'western village') is the neighbourhood immediately west of Gyeongbokgung Palace in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Unlike the more commercialised Bukchon to the east, Seochon has retained more of its original residential scale and fabric — narrow alleys, hanok structures, low-rise mixed-use buildings — while absorbing a wave of careful architectural intervention over the past decade.
Sieg Seochon Haus is a small contemporary building that occupies a plot within this grain, working within the severe constraints of the neighbourhood's scale, setback regulations, and preservation context. The neighbourhood has become a site for architects to test ideas about compact urban housing, small cultural spaces, and mixed-programme buildings that must negotiate with a specific and demanding urban context rather than occupying open sites.
Visiting Seochon as an architectural itinerary rewards an unhurried walk: the density of interesting small buildings, the quality of the traditional fabric, and the general atmosphere of the neighbourhood make it one of the most rewarding urban environments in Seoul for anyone interested in the specific conditions of Korean urban domesticity.
Architecture · Contemporary Architecture