Why Is a Hanok’s Wooden Floor Raised Above the Ground?

From a hanok courtyard, you may notice a shaded gap beneath the wooden floor in front of the rooms. Rather than resting directly on the earth, the floor sits a little above it. Look at the maru of a traditional Korean house and you can discover one way the building makes room for air to flow. A maru (마루) is a level wooden platform built above ground, where people can sit or move around. The space beneath it allows air to circulate. Open sections of wall, or doors that can be readily opened and closed, also help ventilation. Instead of filling every space, the design leaves room for moving air. A broad maru in the middle of the house is called a daecheong (대청). Between the main room and the room across from it, it could serve as a passage as well as a cool place to spend time in summer. Families also gathered there and used it for important household occasions. The daecheong was a living space that connected the rooms, not simply a gap between them. The rooms beside it do not necessarily have the same floor structure. A traditional ondol room is heated from beneath its floor, while the maru developed as a way to respond to heat by using airflow. A home could offer both a warm place and a cooler place to spend time. The arrangement varies with the region, the type of house and later alterations. Look at the pattern of the wooden floor too. Besides boards laid in a single direction, there is a type called umulmaru (우물마루), with boards fitted into a frame that forms a grid. Its name comes from the resemblance between the frame and the Chinese character for a well, 井. If you can view the building up close, try spotting the space beneath the floor, then the way the boards are arranged above it. Before stepping up onto a maru, check whether visitors are allowed to do so. An open door is not an invitation to go all the way inside. You can ask “이 마루에 올라가도 되나요?” (“May I step onto this maru?”), then follow the guidance about where to remove your shoes and where you may go. You can notice structural differences from the courtyard without moving old doors or wooden parts. Where would you most like to rest: an airy maru or a warm ondol room? Does your home or region have different places to relax as the seasons change? Tell us what they are like. AI-generated illustration. This is not a photograph of a real hanok or a precise construction drawing. Academy of Korean Studies — Maru https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0017332 Academy of Korean Studies — Daecheong https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0014835 Architecture & Urban Research Institute, National Hanok Center — Hanok Construction https://www.hanokdb.kr/theology/sub_04