The design for a Korean pavilion in Venice tries to take Semper’s four elements as its basis: earthwork in the form of a granite base – gidan , and masonry walls – dam; hearth in the form of a circular space in the center of the building, where only light is entering from above, and which is a delicate space because of the white paper covering of floor and walls, but the hearth could also be found in several courtyard-like spaces; framework in the form of timber walls of the spaces in the center of the pavilion around the circular space – khan, gongpo, maru, dori and seogare; and lightweight enclosing membrane in the form of the transformed window grid as a roof above the central spaces of the pavilion and the cladding in celadon-coloured rooftiles (giwa) in one of the central spaces.
Transformations have been straightforward and less straightforward. For the earthwork the granite base has been applied without transformation, the walls are transformed in a series of interpenetrating rectangular spaces – interpenetration perhaps replacing the addition or sequence of spaces to be found in traditional architecture. For the hearth, the customary rectangular space has been transformed into a circular space. For the framework, perhaps only the material has been taken from traditional architecture. And for the lightweight enclosing membrane, the window grid and the rooftiles have been enlarged and rotated.
In connection with the studies of transformations of separate architectural elements, the question could be whether recognizability of earlier architecture, in case of evolution, lies in individual elements, or in how these elements are put together. This pavilion design assumes the latter.