Hwasim / Engineforce Architects

Architects: Engineforce Architects
Location: Hwaseong-si, South Korea
Area: 174.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Efrain Mendez

Construction: imzib

‘The Minimum Built’
Hwasim project was started from our realization about the difficulty to maintain the original design and the performance which we planned and wanted due to the sharply increased construction cost in the last three years. Even though we tried to reduce costs by simplifying a form, reducing a size, and downgrading the quality of materials, we were not able to meet the given budget.

After two frustrations, our conclusion was that we should identify the problems in the conventional methods for design and construction and find out the way to reduce the unnecessary processes. For instance, we tried to find ways to build a house with minimum processes from building structures to cladding exterior finishes. However, we want this house to meet the goal constantly to have much less energy consumption than the conventional houses and have more pleasant environmental quality.

Our proposed method was to build the house with ten columns, 200mm flat slabs, four thousands of 6-inch blocks, and 200~400mm external insulation. In those processes, the serious discussion with a builder was a very important part. We are making efforts to search for more effective methods by extending this attitude from drawings to a construction site. We believe that we can overcome limits and make the smarter and more comfortable residential environment with the minimal construction processes that were solutions developed from our simple concerns about increased construction costs.