In A Little Time Cafe

Yoon Joonhwan

• Architects

The road ro Jakcheonjeong Valley at the foot of Shinbulsan Mountain in Ulsan City is covered with pink cherry blossom leaves every early April and brings a different landscape. As you walk along this cherry blossom road, you will find Inalit Cafe with its simple concrete volume.

photo_credit Yoon Joonhwan — Yoon Joonhwan

The architect gave a lot of thought to how they could make a cafe, a commercial building that is most common these days, a sustainable space in the local area. Not a space one temporarily visits, but a space where residents can form close relationships is Inalit.

Built at a location with a typical suburban landscape, Inalit is arranged in a 'U' shape along the site boundary. The building primarily consists of the courtyard in the center, the interior space and a pathway that connects them. The public pathway located on the access road is the main entrance to the space. After one passes throught the access road, they face the courtyard. As the courtyard is widely open to the outside, it can be used not only by cafe customers but also those taking a walk in Jakcheonjeong Valley. The path and the courtyard that continue from the promenade extend the landscape and draw it into the interior. This is the 'Expansion of the landscape' that the architect intended. The interior borrows the landscape of Sinbulsan Mountain, and the overlapping external space is gradually revealed, catching the users' eye for a long time. The place that changes from the cherry blossom road to the cherry blossom garden leads to the path and courtyard and is the most important space of Inalit. Being a place that embraces its surroundings by having a leading from of attitude and bringing about change in a commercial space becomes a good example showing that this building is an open space for local residents as well.