Project Name: MUSIMJAE

Location: Gongju, South Korea

Design Team: TAAL Architects

Area: 187 m²

Completion Year: 2022

Photography: Kim Yongsu

Feature：

Project - South Korean architecture studio TAAL Architects has completed MUSIMJAE, a contemplative residence nestled in the foothills of Mount Gyeryong that embraces Buddhist principles of mindfulness through architectural design.

The 187-square-metre home, whose name translates to "a place of undiscriminating mind," responds to its spectacular natural setting while embodying the Buddhist concept of "MuBunByulSim" – a state of mind free from discrimination and delusion.

"The challenge was translating this philosophical concept into architectural language," explained lead architect Zo Hangman. "We concluded that the house should serve as a threshold where the owner can shed worldly distractions upon entering."

The studio's response manifests in a carefully orchestrated sequence of spaces that frame views of Mount Gyeryong's ridgeline through strategically placed floor-to-ceiling windows. In the second-floor living room, angled walls dramatize these vistas, while transparent balustrades ensure unobstructed sight lines to the landscape.

TAAL Architects employed subtle yet sophisticated design moves throughout the modest structure. Bedrooms feature windows aligned with bed height to create intimate connections with the surrounding forest and sky, while a loft skylight opens to the night sky. The stairwell offers progressive reveals of Sammubbong, the mountain's highest peak, as residents ascend.

Drawing inspiration from historian Kim Busik's description of Baekje palaces as "modest but not shabby, elegant but not luxurious," the architects pursued refined simplicity in both form and material. The home's compact footprint and gabled roof profile belie its sophisticated internal volumes, created through a careful response to the site's topography.

Despite its limited size, MUSIMJAE achieves spatial richness through varying ceiling heights and thoughtfully framed perspectives. The architects' restraint in material selection and detailing results in what they describe as "subtle dignity" – a space that contains exactly what is necessary, nothing more and nothing less.

The project demonstrates how contemporary architecture can engage with traditional philosophical principles while creating spaces that respond sensitively to both site and client needs.

Design Team - TAAL Architects, established in New York in the late 2000s before relocating to Seoul in 2013, has emerged as one of South Korea's most thoughtful architectural practices, known for their phenomenological approach to space-making and contextual sensitivity. The firm was co-founded by Zo Hangman and Seo Jiyoung, both alumni of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

Under the current leadership of Principal Seo Jiyoung, LEED AP, and Founding Partner Zo Hangman, who also serves as a Professor at Seoul National University, the practice has cultivated a distinctive design methodology that synthesizes vernacular wisdom with contemporary architectural discourse. Their integrated service model encompasses master planning, architectural design, interior architecture, and environmental consulting.

The firm's portfolio demonstrates a rigorous commitment to tectonics and materiality, exemplified in projects like MUSIMJAE residence (2022), where Buddhist philosophy is translated into architectural form through careful consideration of spatial sequences and phenomenological experiences. Their work has garnered significant recognition, including the 2010 WAN Award, AIANY Design Awards (2009, 2010), and the Kim Swoogeun Preview Award (2016).

Operating from their Seoul headquarters, TAAL Architects continues to push the boundaries of architectural practice through their research-driven approach and commitment to sustainable design solutions.