Sun Catcher

Studio Weave’s first project in South Korea is a clifftop holiday home perfectly designed to capture a new day dawning over the East Sea

- By Suhyoung Yun

A five-hour drive south from the South Korean capital of Seoul lies a popular sunrise-watching spot: Cape Ganjeolgot, near the eastern coastal city of Ulsan, is where the sun first rises on the Korean peninsula. Here, nestled serenely on a clifftop, is Seosaeng House. Named after the Old Korean word for ‘the brightening East’ or ‘new life’, the soft-coloured two-bedroom holiday home makes a striking contrast against the blue sea, yet blends perfectly with the sky’s tones as the sun rises and sets on the horizon.

Seosaeng House’s unusual upward-slanted roofs are designed to allow in maximum sunlight, making extra room for generous windows below. Wide openings frame views of the sky and the water. ‘From anywhere in the house, if you look to the east, you see the sea,’ says British-Korean architect Je Ahn, co-founder of the London-based Studio Weave, who designed the house.

Its façade is clad in pink-tinted tiles whose gentle curves smartly conceal the streaks created on their surface by the region’s salt water during typhoon season, a result often visible on building façades here. Meanwhile, the house’s concrete frame makes it safe and durable in what is a designated earthquake zone.