Meta Farm Units Pavilion

Gimhae is based on agriculture. The total area of cultivated land in Gimhae is 70.15 km2, accounting for 15% of the total area of Gimhae. A farmhouse is a temporary building in the form of a farmhouse warehouse. Under the enforcement regulations of the Farmland Act of Korea, the definition of a farm hut or farmhouse is a housing unit smaller than 20m2. Meta-Farm Units is a small rural house, the Meta-Farm Units was designed to be no larger than 20m2. Configured as a single unit, it was divided into a living unit consisting of a space to take a rest, based on a living room, and a dining unit where residents live, eat, and work.

To maximize the utility of the space, the living unit was designed with two levels. The first floor contains a living room, dressing room, and bathroom, occupying 8.8m2, 4.4m2, and 3.3m2 respectively. The second floor, reachable by stairs leading up from the living room, has a bedroom with an area of 7.1m2 in the space above the dressing room and bathroom. To offer a view of the glass greenhouse from the bedroom, the windows were designed with a sense of openness, allowing residents to look at the outside scenery of plants growing in the greenhouse. The dining unit is a working space where family members can gather for meals and daily life; it can be entered from a deck built without a step, a space residents can enter while wearing shoes. As an integrated structure containing a living room, dining room, and kitchen, the dining unit has a living area of 19.7m2 and a high ceiling with a height of 3 to 4 meters, providing a sense of openness. In addition, the front window of the dining unit offers a full view of the deck and greenhouse, giving the expansive feeling that the dwelling encompasses the entire space of the greenhouse. A house is formed by adding a deck to the combination of the dining and living units. The deck is an intermediary space that connects various other spaces, similar to the wooden floor hall (daecheong maru ) of a Korean traditional house (hanok). It offers a place to fulfill a variety of activities essential to Korean rural life, such as eating, resting, drying produce, and preparing kimchi. Each house has a yard and vegetable garden under the same greenhouse, enabling subsistence farming and self-sufficiency and maximizing efficiency without external environmental constraints. It can also be expanded into a more general-purpose cultivation area that allows sustainable crop production.

In Korean traditional residential architecture, the configuration of the rooms (kan ) and the division of units (chae ) are basic standards for defining the size of the space. In Meta-Farm Units, the dwelling is divided into units; therefore, small units of space are separated so that those in one space are not visible to those in the other space(s), or the garden and external space are defined in a dwelling composed of multiple units. The Meta- Farm Units is located in a greenhouse environment, so the architectural division of the units and the outer shell of the glass greenhouse are complementary, each making up for what the other lacks. In light of this, seating was placed between the interior and exterior of the living and dining units, allowing family members to rest anytime or interact with each other.

Meta-Farm Units are composed of the basic units of living and dining units and a deck. Based on the size of a small farmhouse, the house has been divided into two units, connected by a deck that reinterprets the wooden floor hall (daecheong maru) of a traditional Korean house (hanok). Outside the house, there is a space to park an electric car, or an electricpowered cultivator or other farm equipment, as well as a lawn and leisure space, with the possibility of plans for further landscaping. Farming tools can be stored behind the house, and the greenhouse is equipped for natural ventilation. Traditionally, in the construction of Korean traditional housing, an entire house (hanok) was not built all at once, but was expanded one section at a time, on an as-needed basis. The same applies to Meta-Farm Units, where one living unit then another can be added to a single shared dining unit, depending on the number of family members and their needs and lifestyles. This enables separation of public and private areas, and connects multiple living units via the deck, in the style of the wooden floor hall (daecheong maru) of a traditional hanok, so that the assembled parts function as a unified house. Expandable with consideration to the number of family members and their lifestyles, Meta-Farm Units can have up to three living units and one dining unit centered around the deck. Inside the greenhouse, spaces were planned for growing not only ornamental plants, but also food crops. Hydroponics technology can be employed to grow produce without external environmental constraints. Through this, the dwelling inside the greenhouse has favorable conditions in terms of temperature and humidity control, insulation and waterproofing, screening out fine dust, and preventing pests. Once the size of the greenhouse is determined according to the size of the family and their lifestyles, the greenhouse is constructed, followed by the dining and living units arranged between the support trusses of the greenhouse. Then, for example, a 1+1 dwelling type consists of one dining unit and one living unit, with a deck located between them, all situated in a “small greenhouse” measuring 32.25×32.25m. The 2+1 dwelling type consists of one dining unit, two living units, and a deck. The deck of the conventional 1+1 dwelling type is extended so that the additional living unit can be connected to the rear part of the deck. Being connected to the other units by the deck gives the living unit easy access to the dining unit. This expanded 2+1 dwelling type is situated in a rectangular “medium greenhouse” measuring 32.25×48.375m. In the case of the 3+1 dwelling type, it consists of one dining unit and three living units, connected by a deck of the same size as the 2+1 dwelling type. The entire system is located in a rectangular “large greenhouse” measuring 32.25×64.5m. In this way, applying different sizes of greenhouses and different numbers of units allows for various dwelling types, according to the size of the family and their needs.

The dwelling types can be expanded in three stages, and the size of the greenhouse can likewise be expanded to be combined with the corresponding dwelling type. Thanks to the technology and integrated systems of the greenhouse, Meta-Farm Units are not affected by the climate or external environment, and the space can be easily maintained, creating the desired indoor environment with minimal expenditure of energy. In this way, greenhouses of varying sizes containing dwellings may cluster together to form a large greenhouse community, which is further expanded into a village. About 25 to 30 greenhouses and farmhouses form a village. At the center of the village of 25 to 30 greenhouses and farmhouses is a small community center composed of programs such as a spa, fitness club, plaza, and library. This type of village can become a paradigm for a new style of rural housing. In addition, community facilities at the center of a village on a larger scale can be used for public purposes. Greenhouses could be placed by planning a street grid that centers on community facilities in a central location in the village; some of the roads around small community facilities might be designated as bicycleonly roads. Greenhouses organized around the mallscale community facilities at the center of the village are arranged in a lattice shape to follow the layout of the streets. Then, to facilitate bicycle travel to other villages, bicycle-only roads are connected to other dedicated bicycle roads in neighboring villages. Five or more adjacent villages form a larger community of about 120 housing estates. Community facilities such as playgrounds, sports infrastructure, art galleries, and libraries can be planned as shared public facilities. The bicycle-only roads around the smaller centrally-located community facilities in each village are connected to the others, making it easy to move between neighboring villages, and the larger community center is reachable by bicycle from anywhere within no more than 10 minutes (3 to 4 km).