When Korean architect Hyun-Wook Lee adopted a simple duplex design that he had learned in Vancouver, and gave it the novel name of “peanut house,” he changed more than the way Koreans build homes.
His own life changed in the process.
Lee, who has visited Vancouver three times as part of a government-industry initiative to encourage wood-frame construction methods in Asia, had a successful career designing institutional buildings from concrete in and around the capital Seoul.
But his wood-frame duplex design, which was a new concept in a city where 85% of the people live in highrise apartments, has catapulted him into celebrity status, making him an unintended advocate of green living and affordable housing.
His B.C.-inspired design has made him known as the architect for ordinary people, providing a low-cost alternative to concrete towers. His peanut house has opened the door to a residential lifestyle that had been the preserve of the wealthy: owning your own home on your own plot of land.
During a tour of a recently-completed complex where 12 families live in six of his peanut houses, Lee explained that the simple Canadian idea has transformed housing and changed his life.
“It wasn’t intentional. It’s not the role I sought,” Lee said of his fame as the peanut house advocate. “But this kind of housing on a small piece of land can improve the quality of life.”
Lee’s peanut houses are uniquely Korean, with small windows to keep out the winter cold and open spaces inside where the family can gather. Energy is costly in Korea, and the simple design reflects that reality.
The houses are colourful. Toys surround the rear entrance to each home, a testimony to the young families who have adopted the Canadian housing lifestyle.
Lee’s interest in wood-frame construction began after his first attempt at designing a singled-family home for his own family, built from concrete, failed. The home was too hot in summer, too cold in winter and expensive to heat.
His wife asked him: “Are you sure you’re an architect?”
Curious about wood, he decided to visit the Canadian embassy in Seoul, which in turn referred him to the wood products marketing agency Canada Wood Korea. He took several training courses and then in 2007, Canada Wood invited him to a course in Vancouver, where he was the one of the first Korean architects to be introduced to B.C. wood-frame construction.
The program’s goal is to introduce wood in a country where concrete dominates. It has been successful in Japan and China, and is showing signs of success in South Korea. B.C. shipped $158 million worth of lumber to South Korea in 2012, despite facing stiff competition from U.S. producers, where a free-trade agreement with South Korea provides them with a cost advantage over Canada.
Korea has a strong wood culture, said Canada Wood Korea director Tai Jeong. However, after the Korean War, millions of new housing units were needed but many of the forests had been destroyed. The practical solution was concrete. Traditional post-and-beam housing almost disappeared.
Lee’s idea for a new type of housing was born from an evening of drinking Soje, South Korea’s popular rice wine, with a friend. The two men did not have enough money for their own single-family houses, but between them, had enough to build one house. They decided to build a duplex where the two families would live side-by-side. They wanted their kids to have an opportunity to play in their own yard.
The concept of an affordable duplex had never been developed in South Korea. There wasn’t even a word for duplex in the Korean language, and when Lee’s nine-year-old son asked about the home they live in, Lee explained that it’s like two peanuts living within one shell: a peanut house. His son got the idea immediately.
“If my son could understand it, then, I thought, everybody could understand it. I realized that architects had been using professional jargon for too long.”
Lee and his friend, a journalist, built their peanut house. The journalist wrote about it. Young Korean families took to the idea, and peanut house became a popular new phrase in Korean.
“I couldn’t believe how influential he was,” said Jeong. “He influenced the whole housing trend in Korea.”
Lee is now building 200 to 300 units a year, accounting for 10% of South Korea’s nascent wood-frame housing market.
Today he sits on a government advisory committee on housing policies, has written three books, one of which is currently a best-seller in South Korea, and gives about 10 speeches a month. However, there has been a cost to his success: his list of clients wanting institutional structures has shrunk as his fame for alternative, low-cost housing has grown.
His duplex design shattered the myth that low-cost housing can only be accomplished by building high rises comprised of cookie-cutter apartments. Construction costs for peanut houses are lower than those for concrete highrises, he said, and they can be built quickly, eliminating much of the interest on borrowing costs.
He is quick to credit his stay in Vancouver, where he honed his understanding of wood-frame construction, with his success.
“The architect’s role is important in developing markets. Training architects is very important. If they don’t design the houses, who is going to build them?”
Gordon Hamilton was in South Korea on a fellowship provided by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency
