6 years ago, when the Winter Olympics was held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, one photo of athletes went viral on social media. In the photo, several athletes sat on the floor, leaning back on the sofa. Comments were filled with people needing help understanding athletes' actions, mostly asking why athletes are using sofas as backrests and not using them for their purpose of a place to sit; some were even worried for the athletes who were sitting on the cold floor during the winter time.
After a proper explanation was given by the Korean who was bypassing, people finally understood the motivations of the athletes inside the photo and weren’t able to hide the surprise. The explanation included the background context of the floor being warm and cozy with the Korean heating system that is built under the floor of each house, not separately installed on top like usual houses in any other countries. The heater method used by most countries around the world, which is heating the air to increase the temperature, is ineffective for heating the floor. This naturally instills the feeling of avoidance towards the floor during the winter time for people because they automatically think of freezing cold surfaces without any warmth. Whereas, with Korean heating system heats the whole area by increasing heat from floor to ceiling effectively covering every portion of the area. Especially, the origin of the heat, the floor, is the warmest and most cozy place which attracts people to sit and lie down on the floor more than on any other surface such as sofas and beds.
Digging more deeply about this brilliant technology of the Korean heating system, surprisingly this wasn’t invented just decades or centuries ago, but it was actively used in Korea for at least since the 4th century B.C.E. The name of this technology is Ondol, and the evidence of this traditional heating system being used is left in the architecture that was designed and used during the history of Korea.
Throughout the history of Korea, Koreans always had high contact with the floor. Koreans preferred sitting on the floor and sleeping on the floor with bedding to sitting on a chair and sleeping on the bed. Since skin is almost in direct contact with the floor, with just a few layers of cotton, it was essential for ancestors to keep the floor warm even during the winter time. So they placed burning coal in the vacant area between the ground and floor of a house designed to be used for Ondol. The hot gas from burning coal circulates the vacant area and increases the overall temperature under the floor, which efficiently heats the whole house, specifically the floor.
The one of most famous examples of Ondol usage in Korea is the three office buildings of the King in the Gyeongbokggung Palace used during the Joseon Dynasty. Three office buildings that are located behind the Geunjeongjeon are named Manchunjeon, Sajeongjeon, and Cheonchujeon from left to right. Since these were the offices, King stayed for a long time discussing the current conflicts and the future of the country. During summer the king had no problem staying and working in the Sajeongjeon which was the main office, located in the middle of two other offices. However, during winter, the king had to make a different choice for his office since Sajeongjeon didn’t have an Ondol system on its floor. Due to lacking Ondol, Sajeongjeon’s floor was extremely cold and unfavorable during the winter, which encouraged the kings to use Manchunjeon and Cheonchujeon more often than Sajeongjeon even regarding Sajeongjeon as the main office.
Ondol was around in Korea, taking responsibility for the heat and warmth of people during winter from underneath the floor. On your next Korean visit, why don’t you try using the Korean heating system of Ondol and enjoy the Korean way of sitting on the sofas?