Designed by JYA-RCHITECTS This was the second “Low Cost House Series” project, sponsored by Korea Child Fund to improve a living environment for low-income families. The house was situated in a small rural village of Jangheung town in southeastern province of Korean peninsula and was a home for a family of parents and five children. From the architect: ” It was a very old and shabby building tilted to a side and stood right next to an unused cow house filled with the remains of cow waste attracting all sorts of flies and bugs. The surroundings were filthy, and the smell was appalling. However, the worst part of the house was ‘rats’, which literally occupied the whole building. It was the family who had to avoid the rats and find their own spaces. After examining the whole house, we decided to knock it down and rebuild it. It was clearly not in a condition to be renovated, and above all, it seemed like the only way to escape from the rats. However, the first problem we encountered was a tight budget. Compared to our first low-cost house project in Beolkyo, the number of family as well as the required space were larger this time. Although the budget for both projects was similar, this was a new construction work unlike the Beolkyo’s renovation one. As our building was to be built as a single floor, the only concerns remained were to improve insulation and create enough space for the family of seven even with three containers of merely 50.4 m2.”
