Less Carbon, More Sunshine

Delete CO2, Add Sunshine — Less Carbon, More Sunshine

The first step toward sustainable travel is staying at an eco-friendly lodging.

Words Parc Jinmyoung
Interviewee Choo Seunghui (Director, Ecovillage)

Passive house, as the name suggests, refers to a building designed to be ‘passive’ in energy use, as opposed to an ‘active house,’ which actively draws in energy. The concept first emerged in Germany in the 1990s and has since spread rapidly, particularly across Europe. It’s an eco-friendly architectural approach that maximizes energy efficiency through high insulation and airtightness, minimizing heat loss while making the most of sunlight. Located in an ecological preservation zone in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do, Ecovillage is a building constructed as an eco-friendly passive house, layered with various elements of sustainable travel. The goal is to offer a rich experience while having minimal impact on Gangwon-do’s beautiful natural surroundings. We spoke with Director Choo Seunghui to learn more.

📝 Note 1. Adding Eco-Friendly Elements to a Youth Hostel

These days, it’s rare to find the concept of a youth hostel in Korea. What led you to design it in this form?
The area where Ecovillage is located is an ecological preservation zone. Under administrative regulations, only public facilities such as youth facilities or museums can be built here. We didn’t want Ecovillage to be limited to a place where people simply stay overnight. Our goal was for guests to directly experience and internalize the process of achieving zero carbon emissions during their stay, so we built it as a youth hostel, a type of youth facility.

Why did you choose Yeongwol, Gangwon-do as the location?
Ecovillage is a youth hostel built by Yeongwol County and operated under contract by our organization, Eco Youth. Right next to Ecovillage is Donggang Ecological Park, home to an ecological information center, an insect museum, and an ecological forest. With the Donggang River and Bongnaesan Mountain nearby, we felt it was the ideal location to realize the Ecovillage concept.

I heard Ecovillage was built as an eco-friendly passive house.
A passive house is a building that draws energy from the flow of sunlight, wind, and heat. It uses devices such as solar heat absorbers to harness energy and prevents heat from escaping, maintaining indoor temperature without relying on fossil fuels. In summer, a heat-recovery ventilation system naturally circulates air while blocking outside heat. High-performance windows, three times thicker than those used in ordinary homes, are installed in various sizes. In short, it’s a building designed to reduce energy consumption using natural energy while creating a comfortable indoor environment.

How and where does Ecovillage use renewable energy?
We currently use solar power to supply electricity, and in winter, we use 100 percent¹ wood pellets as heating fuel.

1 Fuel made by finely crushing and compressing wood waste.

📝 Note 2. The Journey to Find Eco-Friendly Hotels for Sustainable Travel Is Beautiful

Were there any travel destinations you referenced while preparing Ecovillage?
We drew a lot on the construction methods and concepts of Swiss architect Peter Vetsch. Peter Vetsch is the architect who first introduced the concept of the ‘earth house’ to architecture. Based on an ecological interpretation that considers the environment, he designed uniquely structured earthen homes aimed at energy conservation. The earth house located in Dietikon, Switzerland is a truly fantastical space, reminiscent of a hobbit village.

Is there a travel destination related to eco-friendly architecture that you’d like to visit?
The Bayside Marina Hotel, located in Yokohama Marina Bay, Japan, is a prefabricated building made from recycled shipping containers. I heard the containers were shipped in from Thailand using a precast² method and assembled on site. I’d love to see how they supply energy in an eco-friendly way, and how they transformed recycled container structures into something resembling a luxury resort. I’m also curious about the landscaping, interior design, and amenities.

2 The precast method refers to a construction technique in which internal and external units such as rebar columns, beams, slabs, and walls are prefabricated in advance, then transported to the site for assembly and installation.

What kind of experience do you hope travelers have at Ecovillage?
Ecovillage’s slogan is ‘A Clean Overnight Stay: Empty and Refill.’ We hope guests can step away from city life and digital culture, even briefly, to experience analog-style rest with nature and return home recharged with new energy. At the same time, we hope it serves as a small motivation to shift people’s awareness and lifestyle toward caring for the planet. That’s why there are no TVs or refrigerators in the rooms, which is unusual. Instead, the first-floor lobby has a library filled with books, and in the evenings we run ‘stargazing and bonfire-watching programs.’ We hope that staying in a space powered by natural energy sources like sunlight and wind becomes ’24 hours of emptying out,’ an experience of erasing one’s carbon footprint.

What does sustainable travel mean to you?
It’s important for more eco-friendly lodgings like Ecovillage to emerge, but I think travelers’ behavior and awareness need to come before infrastructure development. In sustainable travel, ‘how’ you travel matters more than ‘where’ you travel. Staying at local accommodations rather than famous hotels, experiencing local life, and finding the value of travel through food made with local ingredients are all good examples, don’t you think?

What are your future plans and aspirations?
Centered around Ecovillage and Donggang Ecological Park, we hope to develop the area into an ecological and climate park where people can learn about and enjoy Yeongwol’s nature. We hope you’ll look forward to an Ecovillage Yeongwol where you can truly experience beautiful nature without harming it.

📝 Note 3. The Donggang Red Buckwheat Flower Festival runs in Yeongwol until October 17. It’s the perfect way to experience Yeongwol’s autumn, painted red with buckwheat blossoms.