Speculative Design
Furniture
Spatial Practice
Internship
Spatial Design
Installation | Maquette
Architectural Design
Spatial Design
Digital Space |
Virtual Reality
©2026 SeungEon Kang
©2026 SeungEon Kang
What does Medusa’s house look like?
An apartment is an assemblage of spaces that mirrors the characteristics of residents, not a homogeneous aggregation of spaces. This residential space is adapted and personalized by residents to meet their needs.
The project aims to explore how homes are characterized and customized through fictional spatial design.
Residential Buildings with 860 apartments: The Lee Towers, 3029 AD Rotterdam
The project is executed based on
an architect, “John Hejduk.”
Hejduk’s approach was deeply related to metaphor and storytelling, creating spaces and forms that were often more figurative than practical. He believed that architecture was not just about building spaces for people to inhabit, but about constructing ideas, memories, and even narratives. His work often explored imaginary spaces between reality and fiction. His architecture was sometimes deliberately impractical, focusing instead on the emotional or symbolic experience of space.
Therefore, I applied John Hejduk’s design philosophy in this project to realize the spatial design for the fictional client, Medusa.
Hejduk was influenced by modernist ideals and aesthetic principles, like in Mondrian’s paintings. Hejduk similarly applied grids as a conceptual tool, like Mondrian, both in the layout of his architectural plans and in his broader thinking about space. His use of grids wasn’t just structural; it was symbolic, a way to mediate between order and chaos, between the human and the abstract.
By using the grids, the first section of the house is formed. The grids are used to compose walls and pillars that show the characteristics of Medusa existing between a human and a monster.
The first section consists of three zones. HOME A (Room 1), HOME B (Room 2 and 3), and Living Area. The second section consists of a main room.
Although each space seems to be divided by the wall, the sections are connected circularly and sequentially.
A house should have a clear division between private and public spaces. Therefore, the movement flow in the house is navigated by transitional shifts from the public to the private.
Very Public (1), (2), (3) → Public (2-1), (4) → Private (6), (7), (8) →
Very Private (10)
Very Private (10)
Section 1
Eaves were installed above the doors and windows to express a sense of the house façade. It represents that HOME A and B are distinct houses existing within an apartment. To highlight this distinction, a smooth and reflective green material was selected, contrasting with the walls’ texture and color.
These characteristics echo the nature of snakes living in burrows within the ground, visually reflecting Medusa’s half-snake identity.
In this house, there are no stairs, unlike typical dwelling houses. Namely, only creatures like snakes, who have smooth body shapes without legs, can move around between spaces. The passages in the spaces exist only for Medusa.
The passages serve as transitional spaces, positioned between the public and private areas. It links the shift of the room’s privacy levels. As transitional elements, the passages’ half-transparent and tensile material indicates their role as flexible spaces connecting the rooms.
The wall dividing Section 1 and Section 2 serves as an intermediary structure that indicates the threshold between public and private spaces. It gives the first impression of home, like a face, creating a sense of unfamiliarity that challenges the conventional perception of home.
Section 2