It’s hard to argue with Moon Hoon’s assertion that architecture is alive when his own structures, one equipped with bull’s horns and another seeming to bear googly eyes, look ready to charge down the hillside. ‘Rock It Suda’ is a series of pension houses created as a fun, no-holds-barred country getaway for a member of an amateur rock band and his friends. Each little vacation home has its own creative theme.

The client, a bass guitarist in the band Rock It Suda, wanted a pension that would double as a playground. In Korea, a pension is a place in the suburbs where city dwellers can get away to relax, cook out and enjoy the scenery. While many other pensions are built to resemble European cottages and chalets, Moon Hoon’s series is cartoonishly colorful, and wholly unexpected.

The themes of the houses include Spain, Barbie, Stealth+Ferrari, and caves. Located on the edge of a dry river bed with views of a mountain range, the pensions have a fun and playful feel that’s bound to be a considerable variation from the occupants’ full-time residences back in the city. Nets and hammocks offer childlike places to hang out.

Some of the structures have tail-like appendages made of netting that move and sway in the wind, enhancing the sense that they’re living creatures. Hoon’s injection of fantasy and surreality into architecture encourages us to look at buildings in a different light, connecting with them emotionally and letting go of arbitrary rules about how adults should act – at least, temporarily.

“‘To create a different scene for each unit, I worked from the inside out. The exterior was done last. The average Koreanized pension for two occupies 33㎡. By extending and compressing this standard floor area, I produced various spatial configurations.’ Moon gave each volume a clearly discernible identity – car, plane, bull, Barbie doll – accompanied by a vibrant colour that gives the unit its name: Ferrari Red, Stealth Black, Spanish Blue, Flamenco White, Barbie Pink and Oriental Gold.”