Imgangjeong Pavilion, Hapcheon

Imgangjeong Pavilion is a hanok (traditional Korean house) built as a ritual hall, three bays across the front and two bays deep, with small corbel-block joinery at the column heads and a five-rafter frame beneath a hip-and-gable roof. Its plan places the wooden-floored main hall, arranged in an L-shape across three bays, facing the ondol (heated-floor) rooms, which are arranged in a mirror-image L-shape across three bays, so that the floor and the heated rooms face one another, a composition understood to give a harmonious distribution of space that is both well formed and functional. No low sill board was built across the front of the rooms, apparently to make entry and exit easier, reflecting the function of a room used by many people passing through. Above the main hall's floor, auxiliary roof beams span the space, with a coffered ceiling only beneath the gable ends and an exposed-rafter ceiling elsewhere; the fan-shaped rafters at the hip eaves are simply built, showing many of the simplified techniques typical of the modern period. An inscription on a ridge-end roof tile reads 'the fourth year of Tongzhi, the year eulchuk', showing that the building was repaired in 1865. Although Imgangjeong now serves as a ritual hall, it can be regarded as pavilion-style retreat architecture; its plan is free and practical, its woodworking and joinery are relatively fine, and features such as wall cupboards and transom windows show characteristics of the modern period. Although it does not present a pristine appearance, since some new materials have been used, the fact that it adopts the round-purlin five-rafter structure, the highest form found in vernacular architecture, shows that it was built with the utmost care for its purpose as a ritual hall. It is also relatively well equipped, in its woodworking, joinery, structural style and fittings, with the architectural forms of the early modern hanok.

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Where it is

Region

Hapcheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료