Korean traditional house
Korean traditional houseThe traditional Korean house is heated by warm air or warm water which passes through hollow spaces or pipes under the floor. There's nothing better than coming home to a warm floor on a cold day. That's one of the reasons Koreans don't wear shoes in the house.
In prehistoric times, people in the northern part of Korea lived in pit dwellings with straw roofs. In the south, they lived in houses built on stilts.
These early people's lives centered around a stone fire pit. Their houses faced southeast to catch the sun and block the cold winds.
In the mountains of central Korea, many people lived in nowa houses, wooden houses held together by mud and straw. Their roofs were made of thick wooden shingles, which were held down with heavy stones or logs. Nowa houses have no chimneys. The smoke from the fire hole, which is used for cooking and heats the floor of the main room, escapes through a hole in the roof above the kitchen.
This nowa house is located in the mountains of Kangwon Province. Nowa houses are rare today.
Not long ago thatched houses dotted the countryside throughout Korea. Today most thatched houses are found in "folk villages," living museums where traditional Korean culture is preserved.
Many thatched-roof houses have simple fences made of sticks or stones. The walls of the houses are made of mud mixed with straw. In the colder northern provinces, roofs are very thick and hang low over the house. In the warmer southern part of Korea, roofs are...
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