SOSEUM Living Facilities

Studio SML in Seoul designed a vertical housing project named SOSEUM. It is a building that is designed to face the sky and sitting side by side with the neighboring buildings. This building has a unique characteristic with the roof being extruded into a sharp triangular shape. The unique shape of the building makes it look like it reached out its hand while standing a step backward from the road. It looks indifferent from a distance yet warm and tender at hand. 

Located in Hapjeong-dong, bordering the Han River, SOSEUM is surrounded by low-rise residential buildings that are made out of bricks. Nearby, it also has many historically meaningful attractions. Being a residential building, the public facilities of the Hapjeong-dong area come in handy as urban renewal programs are currently in progress. A lot of public area projects such as the Dangin-ri power plant and the alley regeneration project are currently being carried out,  which in the future will bring a lot of benefits for the area. This location is also equipped with a lot of decent restaurants, cafes, and cultural buildings. 

The unique shape of this building does not arise from mere design creativity but also adjusts the context of the existing regulations on the site. All buildings located in this residential area are subject to the oblique line for the right of sunlight in the due north direction. This regulation then affects the shape, orientation, form, and also borders around each building volume. With the SOSEUM building measuring 5.6 meters wide and 17 meters long, a unique elongated shape and volume design needs to be done to accommodate the existing legal restrictions. 

The site of SOSEUM is located in about the middle of the narrow alley formed between Hapjeong station and Sangsu station. The facade is rather narrow while the rear is relatively wide. It is facing the southeast and surrounded by other buildings. The back and right sides of the site are affected by the sloped line of sunlight from the north. Overall, SML raised four main issues in the design of this building, namely the sunlight oblique line of the north direction, an extension of a road, open elevation, and control of sunlight. These four things are then processed so that they can become unique and interesting apartment designs.