a minimalist retreat is nestled beneath korea's wooded mountains

uirim inn: a modern mountain house by 100a associates

Outside South Korea‘s northern city of Chuncheon-Si, nestled within a valley beneath its looming mountains, this Uirim Inn is built with a minimal and contemporary design by 100A Associates. Despite its introverted expression resembling a walled concrete fortress, the project marks a warm and welcoming stop for guests traveling through the rural area. The architecture is divided between two volumes — one a permanent, year-round residence for the host, and the other housing two guest suites. Thus, the place is an intimate retreat within nature, ensuring secluded privacy from the valley while opening outward toward the forested slope behind its low-walled gardens.

images © Jae Yoon Kim

concrete boxes pair with warm timber

The architects at 100A Associates team built the inn as a comforting respite for all travelers, echoing the sights and smells of the woods with its warm timber interiors, flooded with sunlight filtered by the trees. The reddish wood of the interiors contrasts the concrete building envelope and rusted steel detailing to emphasize its warmth and connection with the natural context. Each bedroom opens broadly out toward its own private garden through a wall of full-height glazing and sliding glass doors, embracing the quietness of the forest with its chestnut trees.

The team illustrates the poetic concept behind the architecture: ‘An exceptionally bright chestnut tree was situated as if it were the owner of the land. The traveler in the forest humbly accepted it, and the chestnut offered him the comfort of silence. That’s how Uirim Inn was settled under such a beautiful and peaceful chestnut tree.’

warm timber interiors glow from within the austere concrete envelope

the house is divided between the host’s residence and the guest suites
evoking a stone fortress, the architecture is an inward-looking retreat in the forest