The Rock is a minimalist house located in Seoul, South Korea, designed by designband YOAP architects. The ground of ‘a pointing hand’ form is seated on the top of the hill in Sangsu-dong area, Seoul. Just as like the name of the region meaning ‘the town above the river’, it is looking down Han River from the top. A cliff of 6m height is dividing ‘the pointing finger’ part above and ‘the hand part below. These differences of narrow/wide and above/below parts in one small ground worked as obstacles from the initial phase of designing already, and the architects should have walked through.

The site is accessible from both upper and lower levels, but the later is possible only by walk. The upper level with both vehicle and pedestrian access was selected as the main entrance, but the narrow width of ‘pointing finger’ part made another obstacle. The architects decided not to locate any mass on the narrow part, and pushed the building to the edge of the cliff instead. This placement of a heavy mass onto the cliff resulted a kind of strange tension and the strong viewpoint to Han River.