Historical study of Korean traditional houses have been carried, mainly, based on the geographical region of Korean peninsula. However, the case of primitive houses can not be researched according to the geographical and racial concept of modern nations. This study aims to examine the primitive houses of ethnic minorities of northeastern China, where the cultural and racial background have been deeply rooted in the history of Korea as well as Korean traditional houses. Through the field research and literary materials, the basic types of primitive houses of the five ethnic minorities could be identified. Among these types, those that have possible relationship with Korean houses, are cone shaped house, underground house, and elevated wooden house. Archeological evidences of underground houses were amply found in Korea already, but above ground evidences could not be found. However, It seems quite certain that the cone shaped houses and elevated wooden houses, too, existed in Korea as one of the earliest housing types, as can be examined in remaining examples in Korean peninsula. With no doubt, the primitive houses of Korea have strong connection with that of the ethnic minorities of northeastern China. This can be verified through the facts that the evidences of cone shaped houses, the similarities of the use of Inner space, the evidences of elevated wooden houses. Also, the combination of wooden floor and ondol, which is known to be one of the strongest characteristic of Korean traditional houses, could be originated from the combination of primitive summer house, the elevated wooden house, and the winter house, the underground house with ondol.

This study examines the dwellings of the Korean diaspora in Maritime Provinces of Russia, and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan of Central Asia to find the gist of the residence transformed as Korean traditional residence culture to accept Russian foreign culture. Through the examination, transformation process of the dwellings of the Korean diaspora was found as follows: - 1st Period(1864-1937): The Korean diaspora who Immigrated to Maritime Provinces of Russia built traditional houses of Korean style and few of them lived in Russian style houses. - 2nd Period(1937-1955): The Koreans who immigrated to Central Asia from Maritime Provinces under compulsion built 'ground house' by digging the earth and installed gudeul which is a traditional Korean heating system and roofed with reed. - 3rd period(1955-1991): The Koreans built straight lined '-' shape houses with two or three rooms wherein most of them were installed with gudeul to heat the room. Around the 1940s as they economically got well, the Koreans started to build houses with Russian style with one or two rooms with gudeul or a separate building with gudeul. - 4th period(1991-present): Houses of the 3rd period are still used by being enlarged or remodeled with less use of gudeul which is well reflected on Ujeong-maul village in Russia Maritime Provinces. As can be found above, the dwellings of the Korean diaspora in Russia Maritime Provinces and Central Asia are on the process of being transformed into Russian style to adapt to Russian culture.

Owing to the energitic studies of the leading shcolars, some paradigmatic theories on the history of Korean dwellings have been suggested. They constructed periodization of their own and defined characteristics of each period with very limited historical materials. However the new historical materials have been discovered in the neighboring academic fields, which require to review the existing theories. This study aims at restructuring periodization in the history of Korean dwellings during the age of The prehistory and The ancient Kingdomes. Through the study, the existing theories on the same period are revived and evaluated based on the new materials. I suggest a new theory on the periodization and the characteristics of each period: a. the paleolithic period(6,000,000 B.P.-10,000 B.P.) : natural shelter, the emergence of man-made dwellings b. the neolithic period(10,000 B.P.-1,000 B.C.) : construction of pit house c. the bronze period(1,000 B.C.- 300 B.C.) : construction of semi-pit house d. the early metalic period(300 B.C. - 300 AD.) : construction of house on the ground level development of the Ondol system e. the ancient kingdomes period(300 AD - 700 AD): classification of housing type