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Very recently, the South Korean architectural field has seen a rising trend to reinterpret the traditional hanok, meaning Korean-style house. While this presents an interesting diversion from the housing market dominated by high-rise apartments, there is a lack of consensus in determining the scope and definition of hanoks. This is because of many experiments with the features of the hanok, such as inclusion of new material, construction techniques, and even radically new spatial organizations.

This article explores and analyzes the effectiveness of four different approaches of reinterpreting hanoks: apartment hanoks, urban hanoks, rural experimentations, and contemporary versions. At one end of the spectrum, there is the recent integration of a hanok’s features in high-rise apartments otherwise considered modern. Then I move on to discuss examples of urban hanoks built since the start of the industrialization era in the 1920s and afterwards. Urban hanoks are detached houses, most of which show a stylistic preference toward wooden hanoks of the elite literati. The third approach is rural experimentations that involve the development of an unconventional construction method by both architects and non-architects. Finally, this paper turns to reinterpretations of the hanok by architects trained in contemporary architecture. Although each approach differs in the degree of integrating historical hanok features, some commonalities, such as low floor area ratio and the organic integration of an open courtyard, can be detected among the successful cases.

Regenerated hanoks, Korean-style vernacular houses in Bukchon (North Village) of Seoul, have been celebrated as the successful examples of a hybrid dwelling integrating modern facilities in a traditional house form. While the modernization project during the postwar era encouraged South Koreans to live in high rise apartments, hanoks became one of the alternative residential options as urban forest of concrete high rises were perceived to be aesthetically unappealing as well as ecologically unsustainable. Hopes are high that remodeled hanoks can ameliorate not only dreary urban landscape but over-competitive and harsh everyday life conditions.

While preservation guidelines for regenerated hanoks provide residents with a possible stylistic model, it becomes questionable whether they are viable solutions given the proliferation of structures which seemingly adhere to the guidelines without considering local urban context. By pointing out the difference between the preservation guideline and its real life manifestations, this paper illustrates how imagined aspect of the vernacular architecture takes precedence over the experiential aspect. In this process of selective appropriation, various vernacular housing types are flattened into a standardized representation of upper class dwellings. This article concludes that it is possible to bring diversity by encouraging flexible interpretations of vernacular architecture and incorporation of residents' memories in the design process.