The timber architecture of Korea: Buddhist halls, palaces and shrines in the East Asian bracketed tradition, and the hanok house that joins the heated floor (ondol) of the north with the raised timber floor (maru) of the south, under roofs whose eaves curve gently in plan and elevation.
Buddhism reached the Korean kingdoms in the fourth century, and with it the Chinese system of the timber hall on a platform. Korean builders transmitted it in turn to Japan (the carpenters and tile-makers who built Japan’s first temples came from Baekje) and developed it in their own direction. Of the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods little timber survives, but the stone platforms, stairs and pagodas of Bulguksa in Gyeongju and the granite cave-temple of Seokguram show the precision of eighth-century builders.
The oldest standing halls date from the Goryeo dynasty: the Geungnakjeon of Bongjeongsa (thirteenth century), the Daeungjeon of Sudeoksa (1308), and the Muryangsujeon of Buseoksa (1376), whose columns swell in the lower third with a pronounced entasis (baeheullim). They use the jusimpo system, with brackets only on the column heads. Under the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) the dapo system, with bracket sets between the columns as well, served palaces such as the throne hall of Gyeongbokgung, while simple winged brackets (ikgong) served lesser buildings. Korean builders also practised the corner refinements of the Song manual: corner columns rise (gwisoseum) and lean inward (anssollim), just as shengqi and cejiao prescribe.
The Korean roof is recognisable at a glance. Its curve is less steep than the Qing Chinese and more lifted than the Japanese; the eave line rises towards the corners and also bows outward in plan, so that the whole roof seems to float. The favoured type is the hip-and-gable (paljak), covered with heavy clay tiles (giwa) laid on a bed of earth, and the timber beneath is painted in the bright polychrome of dancheong.
In the house, climate produced a unique combination. The ondol heats the floor itself: a fire in the kitchen stove, a step below the rooms, sends its smoke through stone flues under the floor slabs of the adjoining room and out through a chimney on the far side, so that people sit and sleep on warm stone. Beside the heated rooms lies the maru, a raised floor of timber boards open to the breezes for the summer. A hanok of the scholar class set these rooms along an L- or U-shaped plan around courtyards, with separate quarters for men and women, the house oriented to the landscape by the principles of geomancy rather than by strict axial symmetry.