Korean traditional houses

Aren't they beautiful? 

Hanok (한옥) is a word for Korean tradiotional house. 

In Korean architecture, the location of the house and its relation to the surroundings are playing a big role. Structure of the house is ruled by a principle called Baesanimsu 

(배산임수), meaning that the ideal house is built with a mountain on the back and river in the front.

Because Koreans spend so much time on the floor, they have always had a heating-system for the floor, ondol (온돌), and during hot summers they keep the house cool with a wide front porch, daecheong (대청). 

Houses in every region of Korea are a little bit different. 

In the north houses are built in a square form to keep the heat inside better, in the central regions houses look more like letter L, and in the southern parts houses are open and long, like letter I. 

A house can also be built to show class or social status. 

I absolutely love two things about these houses:
1) They are beautiful
2) They are built with natural materials

Raw materials used are soil, timber and rock. All recyclable, so there is no pollution. The korean traditional paper (hanji) on the walls and doors is made waterproof and and polished with bean oil. There is many old folk villages around the country, and you can see the old architecture anywhere. 

It's awesome how the old houses are protected!

I could write a long history about these houses, but I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking. 

Enjoy!

Why does this last picture look like Finland? 
 Well, anyway, we are not in Finland now. 

Did you enjoy seeing the beautiful houses?
Good, I did also enjoy photographing them.


Earlier I told about staying in a village like this, and I can tell you that the houses were a little cold during the chilly spring-nights... But I would like to stay in a traditional house again, any day. It's great!