The "art villas" form Block D of the Lotte Jeju Resort, a development of houses designed by different architects, including Dominique Perrault, Yi Jongho and Seung H-Sang.

Kengo Kuma used locally sourced volcanic rocks for the exterior of his buildings, as a reference to over 300 volcanoes and lava cones, called oreums, that are scattered across the island.

"When I visited Jeju Island for the first time, I was so much inspired by this dark, porous volcanic rock and wanted to translate its soft and round touch into architecture," says Kuma. "As the result, the entire house emerged as a round black stone."

A neat lattice of timber creates the arching profiles of the rooftops. The volcanic rubble is spread thinly over the surfaces, stretching down to the ground at intervals and receding to make way for rectangular skylights over various rooms.

Kuma explains: "Our intention was [for] the light to come through the black pebbles. Light highlights the texture of the stone, and the ambiguous roof edge can connect the roof with the ground."

The villas are available to rent or buy and are available in two sizes - 210 and 245 square metres.

Jeju Ball is one of several projects completed by Kengo Kuma recently, following an art and culture centre with a chequered timber facade and a bamboo-clad hotel. See more architecture by Kengo Kuma.

Other buildings we've featured on Jeju Island include a an art museum surrounded by a pool of water and a headquarters building for a Korean internet company.

Here's the complete statement from Kengo Kuma:

Jeju Ball

When I visited Jeju Island for the first time, I was so much inspired by this dark, porous volcanic rock and wanted to translate its soft and round touch into architecture. As the result, the entire house emerged as a round black stone. From distance, the house appears like a single pebble and when you are close, you notice that many parts of the house are of the black stone.

The stone eaves should be the principal detail for this house. Our intention was the light to come through the black pebbles. Light highlights the texture of the stone, and the ambiguous roof edge can connect the roof with the ground. The detail, placing the black stone on a steel mesh, enabled us to realise such vague and subtle edge.

What determines the landscape of Jeju is this blackness and porousness. So we sublimated its feel in a scale of a house.

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and Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

Positioned amongst the designer boutiques of Apgujung Road, the 1980s Chungha building contains a leather accessories store on its ground floor. The upper levels accommodate more private businesses, including a wedding planner and two plastic surgery practices, so its tenants had previously covered over the strip windows and created a messy-looking exterior.

For the renovation, MVRDV removed the beige stone cladding and original glazing and replaced them with a facade of 18 boxes, each with a glazed shop window across its face. Different boxes were handed over to the various tenants, who can either fill them with product displays or screen them using translucent posters.

"The windows no longer correspond with the interior," MVRDV's Jan Knikker told Dezeen. "The general ambition was to keep them as large as possible. The upper windows also follow view lines across the city."

The boxes feature curved edges and the outer surfaces are clad with tiny mosaic tiles. "[They] resemble white foam from close-up and smooth white stone from further away," say the architects. A similar bubble pattern decorates the windows.

A new upper storey is set to open as a rooftop cafe with outdoor terraces.

MVRDV's other recently completed buildings include a shop and office complex disguised as an old farmhouse and a public library inside a glass pyramid.

See more architecture by MVRDV »
See more architecture in South Korea »

Photography is by Kyungsub Shin.

Here are more details from MVRDV:

Gangnam Style: MVRDV completes building transformation in Seoul

Just before a Korean pop-song became a global success on YouTube for the first time in history, and Gangnam became world famous as the nouveau riche hangout of the South-Korean capital Seoul, MVRDV was commissioned by Woon Nam Management Ltd. to redefine a building on Gangnams chic Apgujung Road. Even though the Chungha building was completed in the 1980's it was already outdated in a street dominated by flagship stores. The transformation, which added an extra level, was completed in just 9 months.

The Chungha building had become a rotten tooth in a fast changing streetscape dominated by single brand stores, this building contains a collection of brands in one. On the previous façade, a motley collection of fonts competed for the attention of passersby. The sober building's beige natural stone façade was ruined by commercial messages. The ground floor is occupied by French leather accessories label Louis Quatorze, the floors above hold a wedding planners' office, the clients' maintenance society and two plastic surgery practices. The discretion required by the clients of the plastic surgeries also had implications for the building. The windows of these floors were hermetically sealed, adding to the worn out feel of the structure.

The new façade concept is convincingly simple: Chungha is a multiple identity building which was transformed into a collection of shop windows so each commercial venture imposed onto the façade would have a fitting canvas for its display. The building's façade becomes more advertisement, and in that sense paradoxically more honest.

Curvaceous frames were found to be the best match to the large amount of shop windows, and a mosaic tile consequently became the façade material to follow the curves. LED lights change the buildings appearance. MVRDV was given nine months to complete the refurbishment. Adding to the complexity was the limited size of the construction site - five storeys tall but only 2,5 metres at its widest point. Construction workers were required to balance and squeeze themselves into narrow spaces.

Once unwrapped, the building appears reborn, its large windows are filled with transparent posters which provide space for changing brand identities and discretion for the clients of the plastic surgeon. A 10% addition on the top floor will be turned into a café with outside terraces, resulting in a total surface of 2,820 m2. The exterior façade tiles, which resemble white foam from close-up and smooth white stone from further away, are also used on the sidewalk and in the lobby.

MVRDV realised Chungha Building together with InC Design (co-architect and project management), Ain Construction, 1'st Structure, Total LED and M&S Ceramic.

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by MVRDV appeared first on Dezeen.

The stand, for hand-crafted furniture and products brand Onn, comprised a room with walls made from traditional Hanji paper, stained to create a natural gradient from dark to light.

VOID planning added narrow openings at each end to allow visitors to walk though the space over a gravel pathway that spanned the interior.

Furniture was positioned at the edges over a dark mirrored surface reminiscent of water.

"Walking along inside of the exhibition space reminds of taking a walk on a wet foggy lakeside in the morning," say the architects.

Smaller items were presented on a raw timber shelving unit that formed an obstacle across the pathway.

VOID planning's past projects include a stone-clad art gallery and a headquarters for a cosmetics company. See more architecture and interiors in South Korea.

Photography is by the architects.

Read on for more details from VOID planning:

2012 Craft Trend Fair [Onn] by VOID planning

The Onn booth of '2012 Craft Trend Fair Seoul' shows the direction successfully under the title of 'Beob Go Chang Shin' (which means create new one based on the old one).

Onn is a brand of masterpiece which is carefully classified and selected under the present standard of values and tastes of Millenary Jeonju culture. These premium handcrafted products are well blended traditions with modern designs by cultural asset masters. Materials and colours, products of Onn are inspired by nature and it lights up the traditional peculiarity.

The exhibition booth was constructed to remind a scene of nature as Onn desired, and the space becomes an art piece itself harmonised with the products by Onn. Walking along inside of the exhibition space reminds of taking a walk on a wet foggy lakeside in the morning. Gradation effect of Muk on Hanji which is traditional colour and paper of Jeonju stands becoming the wall and gravels are spread on the floor. All of these extraordinary scenes of nature reflected through the black-mirrored pathway on the floor. This collaboration seemed like watching an epic oriental painting as it was.

Design: VOID planning
Design Director: Shin-Jae Kang, Hee-Young Choi
Art Director: Woong Chul Choi
Location: COEX, 135-731 Samsung-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Floor area: 90m2

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by VOID planning appeared first on Dezeen.

Named Panorama House, the three-storey residence is home to a family of six in North Chungcheong Province. The clients had asked Moon Hoon to include various spaces where their four children could play, so the architects designed a house where different floors belong to different residents.

The ground floor is dedicated to the children and includes the wooden staircase and slide. Open treads create bleacher-style seating areas for a home cinema, but they also double-up as bookshelves for a small study area tucked underneath.

"The key was coming up with a multi-functional space," say the architects. "The multi-use stair and slide space brings much active energy to the house. Not only children, but also grown-ups love the slide staircase."

Two twin bedrooms are located behind the study, plus the youngest children can also use the large second-floor attic as a playroom.

Family rooms are all located on the middle floor and lead out to two separate terraces. Underfloor heating was added to each of the spaces to encourage residents to sit on the floor, rather than on furniture.

A bedroom suite is separated at one end of this floor and features an en suite bathroom and dressing room.

The facade of Panorama House is divided into a basalt-clad base and a white-rendered upper. To accentuate the subtle zigzag of the plan, the architects added angled sections to create the illusion of three cubes in perpective.

Indoor slides have featured in a few residences in recent years. Architect David Hotson added a tubular steel slide to a penthouse apartment in New York, while slides have also featured in a house in Indonesia and a house in Japan. See more slides on Dezeen.

Photography is by Huh Juneul, apart from where otherwise indicated.

Here's a project description from Moon Hoon:

Panorama House

The Client

They have four kids, and that is a big family by contempory standards. They are both teachers in their late thirties. The first and the most important thing they wanted in their new home was a place where their kids could play, read and study. They wanted lower floors for the kids and upper for themselves. They already tried it out with another architect, but it did not satisfy them, that's when they said that they found about me, who appeared to be more playful and more creative.

The Site

Irregular and sloped site boasted a great view. It is situated in a nice newly built surburb. The view reminded me of a scene from a movie, LA surburbs at night. Instantly, a name for the house came up - Panorama House - which they nodded with some ambience.

The Design

The basic request of upper and lower spatial organization and the shape of the site prompted a long and thin house with a fluctuating facade, which would allow for a more differentiated view. The key was coming up with a multi-functional space which is a large staircase, bookshelves, casual reading space, home cinema, slide and many more.

The client was very pleased with the design, and the initial design was accepted and finalised almost instantly, only with minor adjustments. The kitchen and dining space is another important space where family gathers to bond. The TV was pushed away to a smaller living room. The attic has the best view is possible and it is used as a play room for younger kids.

The multi-use stair and slide space brings much active energy to the house. Not only children, but also grown-ups love the slide staircase. It is an action-filled, playful house for all ages.

The fluctuating facade is accentuated by mirrored bottom and top angles. It can bring about some illusion when looked at with some concentration. The various sized windows provide different outlooks. Korean houses are floor heated, which is quite unique and brings users to the floors more than to furniture such as sofa and chairs. So many windows are placed quite low, considering the long living habit. There is no high-legged dining table for the family, only a portable foldable short-legged table. The space kept empty until any specific function arises.

Architect: Moon Hoon
Design Team: Lee Ju Hee, Kim Dong Won, Park Sang Eun
Client: Moon Sung Gwang
Total Site Area: 570.50 sqm
Total Floor Area: 209.14 sqm
Construction: reinforced concrete and wood frame

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by Moon Hoon appeared first on Dezeen.

"We choreographed a contemporary dancer in a motion capture studio," Universal Everything founder Matt Pyke told Dezeen. "We then transformed the motion capture data into a digital sculpture, formed from the trails of human movement."

The hundreds of white light points that form the dancing figure become strands that glow yellow, then red, before solidifying into blue as the dancer moves across the screen.

Universal Everything produced animations at a highly detailed 16K resolution for the 25-metre-wide by four-metre-high screen in the Hyundai Vision Hall, located at the South Korean motor group's Seoul campus.

"The film was produced at such a high resolution to achieve a life-sized dancer moving through the space," said Pyke.

The studio and various collaborators created 18 short films for the hall to turn it into "a space that inspires leaders, engineers, scientists, workers and designers to learn, rethink, and collaborate."

More digital installations on Dezeen include Arik Levy's interactive screen that uses visitors' movements to mutate computer-generated crystals and a wall of digital animals that distract children on their way to surgery.

See all our stories about installations »

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by Universal Everything appeared first on Dezeen.