Naju White House / PLAN Architects Office

Architects: PLAN Architects Office
Area: 236 m²
Year: 2024
Photography: Yoon Joon Hwan
Lead Architect: Lim Tae Hyung
City: Naju-si
Country: South Korea

Naju White House by PLAN Architects Office is a multigenerational residence designed for a middle-aged couple, their elderly parents, and two children in Naju-si, South Korea. Located across the street from the firm’s earlier project, House of Boundary, this 236-square-meter home reinterprets the typologies of rural and urban dwellings to nurture intergenerational connection while maintaining privacy. The design draws inspiration from Korean vernacular forms such as courtyards, alleys, and fences, weaving them into a contemporary architectural language defined by white volumes and restrained detailing. The house’s layered spatial sequence—from a steel gate and internal alley to a central garden—invites a gradual transition between public and private realms, fostering both unity and solitude.

Naju white house / plan architects office

Situated at the entrance of a cul-de-sac in Naju-si, the Naju White House continues PLAN Architects Office’s exploration of spatial empathy and domestic identity. Standing opposite its predecessor, the House of Boundary, the new residence engages in an architectural dialogue across the road, balancing continuity and contrast. Both houses respond to the same urban rhythm yet differ in their responses to privacy, family life, and material expression.

Designed for three generations under one roof, the home carefully mediates between collective and individual living. The architects began by observing the family’s daily routines, tracing movements between urban and rural experiences, and reflecting on how time and memory shape domestic perception. This analytical process informed a spatial narrative that combines simplicity of form with richness of experience. The massing of the house consists of clean, white volumes arranged to evoke the archetype of a traditional home while allowing light and landscape to flow freely through it.

Upon entering through a steel gate, visitors are led along a narrow, sloping alley sheltered by eaves, an architectural gesture that recalls village pathways. This internal corridor unfolds toward a small courtyard where natural textures—rock, soil, and grass—contrast the home’s minimalist exterior. Such transitions heighten awareness of sensory experience, grounding the building within its landscape.

The ground floor orients the main living spaces—living room, kitchen, and workshop—around the central garden, their varied floor levels generating subtle shifts in perspective and interaction. This spatial layering ensures that family members remain visually connected even when engaged in different activities. The grandparents’ rooms, located conveniently on the main level, feature movable partitions that adapt the space for separation or shared use, reflecting flexibility as a design principle for aging in place.

Children access their own realm via exterior stairs leading from the garden, while the couple’s private quarters occupy the 2.5th floor, offering panoramic views and solitude. These vertical separations preserve independence without compromising cohesion, allowing the house to function as a living organism responsive to its inhabitants’ rhythms.

The project embodies what PLAN Architects Office describes as a process of “circulation and return”—a synthesis of past dwellings and future aspirations. The white exterior, luminous and unadorned, stands as both a visual landmark at the village entrance and a metaphor for clarity and togetherness. Within, the blend of traditional spatial archetypes and contemporary order creates a home that accommodates generational diversity with quiet grace, turning daily life into a shared, evolving landscape.