The building form of Myonang-jong and Its Regional Character

담양 면앙정의 건축형태 -호남지역 건축의 지역성 형성에 대한 소고-

The bureaucrat-scholars, ruling class of the Choseon Dynasty, used to build small private pavilions for rest and study for themselves. In the early period of the Dynasty, the pavilions had plain shapes with rectangular plan and simple wooden structure without any walls so as to enjoy the surrounding scenery. From the 16th century, the building form began to change into some diverse one by putting in an ondol room, an unique floor heating equipment. The pavilions also began to show regional differences by placing the ondol rooms in the floor. Myonang-jong, a pavilion occupied by a famous bureaucrat-scholar Song Soon, was built at Damyang of the southwest part of the Korean peninsula, so called Honam area, in 1533. At first, the building form followed the ordinary early pavilion shape using simple wooden structure and wooden floor. But when it was rebuilt in 1654 after burning down by war, there happened some changes. An ondol room was put in the center of the floor, of which regarded as a dominant regional characteristic of the Honam area. The change of the building form of Myonang-jong showed that it was the 17th century Honam area got the regional characteristic in the architecture of pavilion.