Raw House

Raw House by the architectural practice, Order Matter, is a compact mixed-use development on Seoul’s east side, combining a street-level café, four rental apartments, and a penthouse that also functions as a workspace. Its urban strategy balances engagement and retreat: the café animates the street while upper floors maintain privacy and proportionality with neighboring buildings. Setbacks, terraces, and screens articulate massing, framing views while respecting adjacent structures.

The southern façade faces a wooded hillside, employing cha-gyeong to bring nature into the living environment, while the northern side buffers residents from street activity, using carefully patterned brick and openings to maintain visual coherence. Even the penthouse parapet uses perforated brickwork to preserve mass and privacy within local regulations. Raw House introduces inhabitants and visitors to a balanced urban intervention that prioritizes clarity, human scale, and subtle engagement with the city.

Materials define the conceptual and tactile identity of Raw House. Concrete, stone, timber, and plywood are treated in their raw state. Concrete surfaces feature Euroform lines across walls and ceilings, timber planks are precisely oriented, and stone is installed with minimized joints to create continuous planes. Plywood is applied selectively for contrast without dominating the composition.

Floors, ceilings, and walls adhere to a universal grid, allowing furniture and partitions to read as objects within a larger framework. Thresholds, window sills, and terrace brick alignment were meticulously executed. The tactile qualities of materials – the cool density of concrete, the fine grain of timber, and subtle variations in stone – offer a grounding sensory experience, while surfaces age naturally over time.

Interior spaces emphasize flexibility, daily ritual, and sensory clarity. Circulation, scale, and thresholds were designed so furniture and partitions can be rearranged within the spatial grid. A semicircular stair landing eliminates residual corner space, introduces northern light, and functions as a visual marker. Lighting is indirect, washing walls and ceilings to provide ambient illumination while allowing residents to personalize their own schemes. Room proportions, ceiling heights, and opening rhythms were calibrated to create a rhythmic sense of movement.

The kitchen includes built-in elements that wrap around structural columns, integrating function seamlessly. Every decision supports inhabitant choice and interaction with space.

Raw House exemplifies Order Matter’s design ethos: restraint, precision, and human-centered architecture. Sustainability is embedded through durable materials, passive strategies, and minimal maintenance rather than technology. The concrete structure provides thermal mass for temperature and humidity regulation, while minimal built-ins and flexible interior grids allow adaptation over time. The penthouse terrace doubles as a green space and workspace, showing the practice’s commitment to multifunctional design.

Order Matter is an architectural practice with offices in London and Seoul, led by directors Oliver Chiu and Youseok Cho. True to its name, the studio approaches every project with a meticulously curated attitude, expressed through geometric forms, rigorous material exploration, and refined attention to detail. Their work spans private residential, hospitality, luxury retail, and historical buildings, integrating architecture, interior design, bespoke furniture, and lighting. The practice combines research, technical expertise, and collaborative dialogue with clients, consultants, and contractors to ensure projects are both conceptually precise and beautifully executed.

With Raw House, Order Matter demonstrates their commitment to creating architecture that is emotionally grounded, environmentally responsive, and deeply human, reflecting the studio’s overarching philosophy: order, care, and spatial intelligence as instruments for meaningful living.