Moscow Apartment Takes Cue from Korean Hanok

A Moscow apartment reinterprets the architecture of a traditional Korean hanok, incorporating principles such as filtered light and flexible boundaries. Inga Kordya designed the living room around the direct midday sun, using custom shutter doors made from tinted oak and fitted with brass handles shaped like eight-petal flowers.

The mechanism of the shutter doors draws from the same principle used in a hanok, where changhoji—mulberry paper stretched over a wooden lattice—diffuses daylight into an even wash before it enters the room. This approach allows for a unique play of light and shadow in the apartment.

Kordya spent time in the historic South Korean districts of Bukchon and Namsangol studying 14th-century hanok structures while designing the Moscow apartment. The home is for a Korean couple raising two young daughters in a monolithic residential complex several thousand kilometers from Seoul.

The apartment’s design is characterized by the use of industrial materials, such as matte glass and vertical mullions, which replace the traditional paper and lattice of a hanok. The Rimadesio sliding doors apply the same principle, scattering transmitted light and setting a rhythm across the opening.

Three bedrooms and three bathrooms are arranged around a central hall that absorbs circulation and draws light into the apartment’s core. The central hall occupies a role similar to the madang courtyard in a hanok, providing a flexible and adaptable space for the family.

The two daughters share a sliding partition between their rooms that opens the pair into one space for play. This feature echoes the way hanok interiors have traditionally allowed families to reconfigure the same volume through the day and across seasons.

Material selection supports the light strategy, with a focus on texture and reflectance rather than saturated color. Marble, granite, natural wood, brass, ceramics, linen, wool, and cotton are used throughout the apartment to create a sense of warmth and coziness.

Rather than reproducing the appearance of a traditional Korean home, Kordya translated some of its underlying principles—filtered light, flexible boundaries, and adaptable rooms—into a contemporary apartment. The result carries those ideas across thousands of kilometers without imitating where they came from.

The apartment’s design creates a sense of community and connection to heritage, even in a distant location. As the family grows and changes, the apartment’s flexible spaces will continue to adapt and evolve, providing a unique and responsive environment for its occupants.

The apartment’s inhabitants will find a sense of comfort and familiarity, one that is rooted in the traditional principles of the hanok but expressed in a contemporary and innovative way. The use of natural materials and textures, combined with the flexible and adaptable spaces, will create a sense of warmth and coziness, making the apartment feel like a true home.

The main bathroom has a deep gray tone for a more graphic character. The primary bedroom uses rotating brass sconces, giving occupants control over where light lands, much like the shutters in the living room. Large-format ceramic tiles cover the hall floor, chosen for their texture and tactile quality.

It is a space.