In a bold move, South Korean online lifestyle platform Carpet News has gone offline to create a brick and mortar presence that more or less replicates its digital offerings. An initiative of Urban Play, an urban retail and cultural concept developer based in Seoul, the venue occupies 957 sqm. (10,301 sq.ft.) on the ground floor of the soaring Samsung Life Insurance Building in the heart of Daegu, the country’s third largest metropolitan area, Carpet News unites a series of different hospitality concepts under one roof. The interior design of the voluminous space is a collaborative effort of Seoul-based architecture practices Workment and MalF which have created six distinctly different settings, each accommodating a hospitality concept. The venue is more or less anchored by the so-called Culture Lounge, a versatile showroom, gallery and pop-up space where a rotating programme of branded events is held.
The setting features four moveable boxy display units which allow various configurations. Currently on here is a pop-up store by Nordic Sleep, an eco-conscious Danish brand which offers pillows, duvets and mattresses (open through Nov 6). Straddled alongside Culture Lounge is eert kitchen, the newest outpost of the eponymous artisanal coffee brand and café chain. The voluminous space is furnished with simple wooden tables only, and in an adjacent cabin, concealed behind opaque sliding doors, sits the actual kitchen. Mind you, some of the tables break the mold and come with a little sink and faucet. Also coming from the capital city up north is Yeonnam Banganan, a bake shop, café and lounge rolled into one. Here, the décor takes cues from a traditional Korean house, but obviously, all has not only been translated into a configuration of abstract – dare we say pixelated? – furnishings and fixtures, but also in a reversed way, which is arguably best captured by the staircase prop.
The menu lists Korean-style dishes with a contemporary tweak, and all ingredients have been locally sourced. For homemade hotdog pub DOGMA, a setting has been designed with the motif of the facade of The Two Pines Chapel, the place where the Beatrix Kiddo character luckily survived in the cult movie Kill Bill. The inner space is filled with lights from stained glasses featuring graphics of the brand’s mascot Laiko. Also present at Carpet News is Morudon, a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant serving a wide variety of tasty udon and curry dishes. Here, differently sized boxes dot the space, serving as furnishings and aiming to reflect the physiology of a small village. Another concept where to indulge oneself is baugm, a health food shop from Seoul, offering grain-based health drinks, coffees and teas. The setting boasts an open-cube structure with two inverted U-shapes joined at the ends, containing necessary shop functions.
Carpet News
2095 Dalgubeol-daero (Jung-gu)
41936 Daegu
Telephone: +82 53 2430555
Daily 8am-9pm
Publishers Note
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