Industrializing Korean Traditional Housing (Hanok) with Hybrid Timber Construction

Abstract

In an attempt to disseminate traditional Korean culture, a comprehensive research has been initiated by Korean government in order to modernize Korean traditional housing (Hanok) with the objectives of improved energy performance and affordable construction cost. This äóÖHanokäó» project encompasses a wide spectrum of housing research including public policies, planning methods, standard design documents, new building materials and methods, construction standards, maintenance manuals, and advanced IT applications in an integrated manner. One of the biggest challenges in this äóÖHanokäó» project was to modernize the äóÖtraditional timber structureäó» for industrialization, while keeping the traditional way of aesthetic representation. As a solution to meet this complicated requirement, a hybrid timber system was developed by combining traditional methods and industrialized modular members. Different timbers and methods are used together for different part of house elements resulting in cost reduction by 50% for the timber frame. Major criteria for applying different methods include the aesthetic representation, economy, and deformation behaviour of wood. Automated computer numeric control (CNC) machine, standard 3D-CAD objects, standard classifications, and computer applications were also developed in order to make this hybrid system economically feasible. This paper introduces the hybrid timber system for Hanok along with supportive application systems for industrialization. Three mock-up projects, actually built as part of this research project, are compared and analysed in order to illustrate how the proposed hybrid timber system has evolved during the research and development. Lessons learned and future directions will be also briefly discussed.