- Project: Busan Times
- Architect: Moon Hoon
- Location: South Korea, Busan
- Year: 2017
- Area: 116 m2
- Photography: Shin Kyungsub
A Concrete Owl Perched on the Cityscape
Busan Times is among Moon Hoon’s most playful and symbolic creations — a compact urban residence that doubles as an architectural mascot for imagination. From the rear, the building astonishingly resembles an owl: two prominent window-sets form the “eyes,” while the staircase resembles outstretched wings.
The “owl” metaphor was intentional: the nickname resonates with the client’s profession, demanding alertness during night shifts. In this way, the house becomes both a home and a personal “lookout.”
The result is concrete architecture that is as theatrical as it is functional — bold in silhouette, refined in detail, and deeply rooted in narrative.
Geometry, Program and Spatial Ingenuity
Built on a modest 116 m² footprint, Busan Times maximizes vertical layering over multiple floors. The ground level houses parking and auxiliary spaces, while upper levels accommodate living, communal, and private areas.
The house’s geometry responds both to regulatory constraints (setback laws) and to the ambition of sculptural form. The design manages to translate those constraints into expressive volumes — the “owl’s head” protruding from the main body, diagonal angles, and carefully placed windows.
Inside, the layout creates dynamic interplays of privacy, communal living, and childhood imagination. A circular skylight in the children’s room creates a “stargazing” effect at night, and a floor opening — originally intended for playful sliding circulation — hints at the ambition to merge everyday living with joyful spontaneity.
Materials, Atmosphere & Identity
The choice of exposed concrete underlines the house’s sculptural ambition and brutalist sensibility. The rough texture and solidity ground the whimsical form, lending it a sense of permanence and urban authenticity.
Large windows — “the owl’s eyes” — allow light to flood the interior, while creating a distinctive night-time silhouette that transforms the house into a glowing urban beacon.
Moon Hoon’s adoption of bold symbolism, playful references, and evocative form — traits he refers to as part of his “fictional world” vision — come together here. Busan Times becomes architecture as identity, memory, and expression.
Why Busan Times Matters
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Narrative architecture at home scale: In just 116 m², the project delivers a residence that is also a character — an “owl house” with story and soul rather than a mere floor plan.
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Constraint as catalyst: Rather than seeing restrictive setback laws as a burden, Moon Hoon turned them into geometry, crafting a shape that is simultaneously compliant and expressive.
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Playful yet functional living: From skylights to multi-floor living, the house balances imaginative elements with real domestic needs.
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Brutalist realism + poetic whimsy: The raw concrete and structural clarity anchor the fantasy, yielding an architecture that lives in both worlds: concrete and myth.
Busan Times remains a reference point in contemporary Korean residential architecture — a bold example of how personal narrative, creative freedom, and careful design can transform a small urban plot into a highly expressive home.
