Fortress Brick House just reminded me of a more modern, urban,
and refined take on the compound housing in Zambia. It is definitely very
fortress-like, designed to function as two homes for the client and his son’s
family.
Each of the “houses” contains its own private courtyard, which
bleed into the shared park space in between, which allows for abundant natural
light while maintain the maximum privacy in the very close-knit neighborhood. Even
window placement was based on maintaining interior privacy from the pedestrian trails
of Seoul’s city wall.
The use of brick to tie the disparate site elements together
was interesting to me, as I rarely enjoy using brick because it does feel like
a cliché here in Oklahoma. However, it was a bold aesthetic choice in the case
of the Fortress Brick House, which also drew inspiration from the city wall whose
granite was deemed too heavy a material for the project.
The paved courtyards do come off a little cold and
impersonal, but they give way to planted areas which are clearly intended more
for sharing family time than those courts nearer the street.
I feel like this is one of those rare instances in which red
brick was used to an interesting and visually stimulating end, rather than
simply because it was the material surrounding buildings used. The overwhelming
usage grows on you, and gives the complex a character it simply wouldn’t have
had it been constructed of wood or stone.
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