Beauty and practicality in hanok, 

Korean traditional house

Culture of a nation is also in the names of the objects of its own tradition and Korea transmits a deep social identity by its language. 
The prefix –han (한, 韓) in fact is linked to all the words that mean Korea or Korean. Han derivates from the name of the three kingdoms Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan (Samhan, 삼한, 三韓 ”Three Kingdoms”, final century BC - early centuries AD) and it means "great (one)". Han had been transliterated into Chinese characters 韓, 幹, or 刊 and some scholars consider that han could be related to Mongol word khan which means commander, leader, or ruler. Han doesn’t have any connection with the character 漢, 韓which is pronounced han as well but indicates Chinese Han dynasties. Indeed the name of Korea is Hanguk (한국, 韓國 "country of the Han"), alphabet is hangul (한글, 韓글, "Korean script" or "great script"), the traditional dress is hanbok (한복, 韓服, "Korean clothing"). On the other hand Han River (한강, 漢江), which flows through Seoul, takes its name from Chinese character 漢.

Korean traditional house is hanok (한옥, 韓屋) and it is built according to baesanimsu (배산임수, 背山臨水) which derivates from Chinese feng shui (風水). The optimal position of traditional house is with a mountain in the back and a river in the front. One of the classical parts of Korean house is daecheong (대청, 大廳) front porch for keeping the house cool during hot-humid summers. Daecheong has got a typical arching made by roof tiles called giwa made to screen out the entrance from the sun and from the lasting monsoonal rains. During the frigid Korean winter traditional houses are warmed up by ondol  (온돌 / 구들, 溫突), the wood floor underfloor heating system made by an underlying canalization of the smoke of the fire of a firebox or stove (아궁이, agungi) located to the side of the house. Korean people traditionally sit and sleep on the floor as Japanese people and many other people of Far East. Ondol is a truly genuine Korean creation and it had been the most common heating system for the houses until the 1960s.

Both the windows and the doors are screened with sheets of traditional paper hanji (한지, 韓紙 “Korean paper”) just like shōji (障子) of paper washi (和紙) in Japanese houses. 

Korean traditional houses are extremely adaptable to surroundings’ climatic and landscape characteristics.  For this reason hanok have different shapes in different Korean regions. In the South hanok present a linear  and straight shape to allow a better wind circulation inside and to mitigate the wet heat of summer. In the North hanok have a closed squared shape like Korean character "ㅁ" to arrest the flow of air inside. In this type of hanok all the rooms are joined together. In the central regions hanok has a shape similar to Korean character "ㄱ" and its characteristics are a combination of both Northern and Southern styles.

The house is one of the most important sacred places and like in China and Japan in Korea as well traditional house has its own domestic god that protects the house and the family: the Kitchen God Zao Jun (灶君) originated from Chinese religious culture. 

Perfectly balanced between beauty and practicality, hanok is deeply in harmony with surroundings and with nature of which Korean traditional houses uses the elements like wood, fire, stone and some others. This deep harmony with nature is completely missing in the modern cement buildings, for sure more convenient but finally more banal and uglier.

Floriano Terrano