This café occupies the first floor of a new office building in the Gangnam district of Seoul, where apartment buildings line the streets. The space, which has 6.5-meter ceilings and faces the building’s entrance and façade, is extremely open. The design therefore emphasizes the counter as a symbolic element visible from outside. By setting a ceiling-height black wall—which is one part of the Paul Bassett brand identity—at an angle behind the counter, the counter’s presence is highlighted, lending power and tension to the unstructured space. 

The low walls surrounding the kitchen are finished with uniformly-shaped slabs of marble, emphasizing the contrast with the slanted, towering black wall. The even grid of brass joints on the floor serves a similar purpose. During the design process we paid close attention to the unique characteristics of each material and carefully considered the placement and balance of each so as to match the sense of scale. We hope the result is a memorable space that customers will visit many times without ever tiring of it.