The architectural meaning of the seductive domestic spaces described in narratives: Yi sang's the wings (1936) and inho choe's another man's room (1971)

This paper aims to uncover the architectural meaning ¹ of the domestic spaces portrayed in two Korean modern short stories, Yi Sang's The Wings (1936) and Inho Choe's Another Man's Room (1971). By carefully describing Seoul's unique domestic spaces during two different time periods, a gisaeng ² house from the 1930s and a modern apartment unit from the 1970s, the two narratives qualitatively represent unique architectural conditions. In particular, with their detailed descriptions of architectural, material and immaterial elements and how these relate to a woman's body, the stories produce seductive atmospheres poetically. In this sense, The Wings and Another Man's Room show significant architectural meaning, and architectural practitioners and scholars should consider their potential as architectural references. By criticizing the contemporary stylistic and formal obsession in architecture as well as design education, this paper intends to highlight the fundamental meaning of architecture as the creation of emotionally and intellectually charged communicative and harmonious environments, in other words, "attuned settings for significant human action," as they engage narrative forms.