Hanok is the term for the traditional Korean house that used to distinguish it from Western-style houses. Korean architecture into account the location of the house from the surrounding environment, especially considering the circumstances of geography and season. The interior structure is also designed based on the location of the house. The principle called Baesanimsu (hangul: 배산임수) literally set the ideal home to be built back to the mountains, and rivers are in front of the house. Hanok built facing east or south to get enough sunlight.

Korean traditional houses built from natural materials like wood, soil, stone, straw, tiles, and paper. Poles and frames made of wood hanok. Wall charger frame house was built from bricks made from a mixture of soil and grass. Korean traditional paper (hanji) installed in the framework of the windows, door frames, and siding. Floors are made of hardened soil or rock.

Periphery roof curved up called cheoma. Cheoma length determines the amount of sunlight that comes into the hanok. Based on the striking difference in the roof, the general hanok divided into two types: giwajip (thatched roof house) who inhabited the upper class (yangban) and chogajip (thatched house) which is inhabited among farmers. Giwajip constructed using tiles (giwa) so that housing costs become expensive and not affordable by the common people. In contrast, ordinary people lived in thatched houses are easily obtainable ingredients. Hanok roof tiles are still used as a residence, while hanok thatched buildings has become scarce.

Building parts

Hanok ondol equipped with floor to warm the house during the winter. Koreans sat, ate, and slept on the floor constantly warmed by ondol. Wide veranda connecting room with one other room called daecheong (대청). Daechong an open room with wooden floors, built to guard the house remains cool in summer. Hanok forms also vary by region in Korea. In the cold northern part of Korea, the building resembles a square composed hanok closed (or hangul alphabet: ㅁ) as a windbreak to keep the house warm. In Korea the central part, the rooms are prepared to form the letter L (or the alphabet hangul: ㄱ). In southern Korea, hanok built to resemble the letter I to elongate easily in and out of the wind.

Building (room) where the living men and women are separated in accordance with the thoughts of Confucius. Hanok consists of buildings (rooms) called haengrangchae, sarangchae, anchae, and Sadang. Haengrangchae is building for servants’ quarters, near the entrance. Sarangchae is building for men or heads of families, including for food and sleep, and was at the front. Anchae is the main building as well as sleeping space for the following women with young children, and is located on the inside that far from the entrance. Room for ancestral altars called Sadang. page in the midst of building a house called Madang, and storage buildings called gwangchae. In addition, hanok also often have a chimney, and the gate (munganchae).

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