iSM Architects

Yul-dong Café

YUL-DONG CAFÉ

iSM architects

Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin

ARCHITECTS
iSM architects

CATEGORY
Coffee Shop

LOCATION
Seongnam-si, South Korea

AREA
72.0 m²

YEAR
2014

PHOTOGRAPHS
Hyosook Chin

DESIGN TEAM
Hyomin Lee, Sehee Lee, Jinhee Kim, Kunuk Kim, Goun Park, Seungyoon Kim

CONSTRUCTIONS
Dasan Construction Engineering Co., LTD.

Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin

Text description provided by architect.

Could architects turn impossibility into possibility? 

It was this question iSM had in mind when the client showed the site on his first visit to iSM office.

The triangular shape of the site was small and long, let alone, crooked. Site zoning restrictions added the difficulty in the schematic phase.

Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin
Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin
Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin

Zoning allowed 4-story building, however, due to tight setback regulation, building had to move away from the street to reach maximum height of 3-story.

As a result, maximum floor area achievable was 24 square meters per floor in triangular shape. Excluding the stairs and toilets, not much area was left for café tables. Turning an impossible architectural situation into a possible business opportunity was not easy.

Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin
Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin

iSM fought for every invaluable inch. To maximize space and to meet zoning ordinance, the floor configuration followed shape of the site.

iSM used acute angles of triangle as a design motif of the project. iSM used glass inclusively in an exclusive small space.

To polarize lightness upstairs and heaviness downstairs, iSM finished basement and sunken garden with bricks. iSM accentuated crook sunken garden profile by bonding bricks diagonally.

Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin
Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin

Stair was the only vertical piece in the café building that had potential to make a public statement. iSM folded steel plates to minimize the visual presence of stairs.

Very thin steel rods were elongated to function as a soft veil than just a functional guardrail.

Fritting pattern on glass was vertically triangulated in striping pattern. It reduced fear of acrophobia, yet acquired transparency at eye-level.

Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin
Yul-dong Café
© Hyosook Chin

Indirect artificial lighting at spandrel zone was hidden in the sharply folded metal plates to accentuate the steel rods in stairs and vertical fritting in glass.


Yul-dong Café
Ground Floor Plan
Yul-dong Café
First Floor Plan
Yul-dong Café
Second Floor Plan
Yul-dong Café
Third Floor Plan


Yul-dong Café
Sections
Yul-dong Café
Detail


Yul-dong Café
Diagram 0
Yul-dong Café
Diagram 1
Yul-dong Café
Diagram 2
Yul-dong Café
Diagram 3
Yul-dong Café
Diagram 4
Yul-dong Café
Diagram 6
Yul-dong Café
Diagram 5


Yul-dong Café
Concept Diagram
Yul-dong Café
Isometric Diagram


Yul-dong Café
Model 1
Yul-dong Café
Model 2
Yul-dong Café
Model 3

iSM Architects
T +82 2 5773211
iSM Architects
2F Arkosmo 42-14, Nonhyeon-ro 26gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea