Byeollae Church

The Byeollae Catholic Church is located in the green area reserved from a new development in Namyangju city, one of the commuter towns outside of Seoul, South Korea. The church acts as both a spiritual place as well as the center of the community for the emerging population in a nearby new town. Accommodating diverse requirements in the limited area, the concrete structure transforms on each floor to create different space quality. On the first floor, the community hall is designed to allow more sunlight and views to neighboring mountains by the flat slab structure. Also, the hall on the second floor gives peculiar experience to prayers by filtered sunlight. Light through the hollow columns with different angles, penetrating the third floor, generates unique interior atmosphere. Finally, the manipulation of structure spontaneously becomes internal space, building form, and facade.

Year: 2015

Type: Religious, Competition

Location: Gyeonggi-do, Korea

Area: 2,174m² (gross), Area 569m² (footprint), 994.25m² (site)

Design team: J Kyung Kim, Yesol Lee, Dongwon Lee

Award: American Architecture Prize 2016, Gold Medal (Misc. Architecture section) 
Asian Architecture Award, Shortlist