Site Model

The physical model shows the various paths to the restaurant from the cable cars offering great views of the Seoul Mountain landscape to the meandering trails with integrated areas of refuge allowing users to simply pause and be immersed in nature.

Hanok Style Construction

Honoring traditional Korean architectural processes, The Hanok style was utilized to create an envelope to host the sustainability-focused interior design. This style has a low ecological footprint while building and hempcrete has been implemented to further mitigate emissions after construction.

Mugunghwa Lounge

The Mugunghwa, Korea's national flower, served as the muse for this project and inspired many of the physical design aspects throughout the restaurant such as the color palette and materiality. The spatial organization was also developed based on the flower's anatomy with rooms blooming out like petals from the central courtyard. The lanterns above mimic the stigma of the flower and draw the eyes to the verticality of the double-height space.

Seoul Ssan Bang

The name translates to "Seoul Mountain Room" as the plate wall art installation depicts local organisms that inhabit the ecosystem relating to the notion of appreciating the local environment from where all the food is sourced from.

Yoo Market

The Yoo Market not only provides users the necessary resources to implement regenerative cooking techniques and practices into their daily lives, but also educates users allowing these practices to spread within the community and beyond. A paradigm shift is inevitable when changing the perspective from learning about nature to learning from nature. Su-Jin simply facilitates this transition through great food and great design.