This paper aims to investigate the general characteristics of the 'eave-space' of the traditional architecture of Korea, which
seems to have been singularly neglected, for understandable reasons, in the architectural researches. For one thing, the
eave-space has not even listed among the nomenclature of the more authentic spaces of the traditional architecture.
Author examined a non-architectural source, the old literatures of the Koryo and Choson era scholars, and sought to find out
how the eave-space was conceived in relation to the perception of the nature in general. They provided a fresh conception of the
long forgotten eave-space. It was, or still is, a unique space which was endowed with active architectural functions, which is
quite different from those of China and Japan. It provided architecture with a space for communication with the nature, a layer
for control of the spatial hierarchy, and also a space for cohabitation with animals. This paper concludes that the eave-space is a
unique space that characterizes the traditional architecture of Korea, no less than major spaces.