The Jinbatgol Wood-Friendly City Community Centre is a community facility conceived under the concept of Living Ground, designed as a timber landscape that feels as if it has emerged from the site itself. Set on a sloped triangular plot and calibrated to the scale of the surrounding homes, the building is positioned as a threshold and a knot that mediates between city and forest, between the Youth Training Institute and Jinbatgol Timber Street.
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The program is housed in a series of segmented timber-structure boxes—book café, timber lounge, multipurpose room, classrooms, and rest lounges—each rotated and placed to address different ridgelines and the village. A stair and bridge that cut through these volumes choreograph the ascent from Susung’s urban fabric into the forest, while also enabling panoramic views of the ridge and valley from the uppermost lounge. By setting the main entry level at B1, circulation is organized so visitors pass through a four-season garden before entering the building, so that ground, vegetation, and microclimate are encountered first through the body.
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The landscape is planned around native tree species and wild grasses, forming an ecological ground where blooming, dormancy, and decay repeat with seasonal rhythms. This garden supports not only human use but also birds, insects, and small animals, functioning as a mediating habitat through which the building becomes embedded within the local ecosystem.
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Structurally, the project adopts a hybrid system that combines reinforced concrete below grade with a heavy-timber system above. Locally sourced small-section larch members are deployed within the primary structural scheme of Vierendeel trusses, substantially reducing carbon emissions. A rammed-earth ceiling made with reused excavated soil, radiant ceiling heating, rooftop photovoltaics, and a charred-wood exterior modulate flows of heat, light, and energy, while forming a material language that registers the life cycle of timber. Through this, the centre proposes a prototype for timber architecture—precise and resilient for a small community—anchored in local memory and oriented toward the future.

Architects: Terroir (Australia), Narrative Architects
Area : 792,48 m²
Location : Suseong, Republic of Korea