How can architecture achieve seamless spatial connection between outdoor landscape and indoor living space without boundary? To answer that question, we have to stop separating the building versus the ground. Rather, imagine a surface that originates from the landscape, which eventually forms a knot to create an enclosure. The wild landscape floods into the terrace, generates patterns of the herb garden, and gradually reaches the interior in a seamless manner.
The Knot House introduces a new ecological lifestyle by combining farming and culture of tea. In the terrace garden, one can pick up fresh herbs to bring in to the house and make fresh tea for relaxation. It brings a small pleasure of production for the city dwellers who are only used to consume. Where the garden ends is a bathtub that submerges into the same landscape. The water used for bathing feeds back into the by watering the herb garden throughout the whole year.
The construction takes careful consideration of sustainability. The house will be the pioneering example of “passive house” in Korea to match the strict European standard. The cost initially invested for passive house will pay off in less than 2 years through savings in energy bills. Application of Low-E coating and foggy fill-ins for glazing also maintains comfortable atmosphere inside as well as privacy.
The project brings multiple advantages from the real-estate point of view. At first, multiple units can be built for ownership as well as for hospitality to generate constant income. Many years after, they can be easily converted and sold as residential units. The design itself takes account of adaptability throughout the life span of the building.
