It’s safe to say, very few coffee parlours are of sociological significance as NONSPACE is. Situated in Icheon, a rural district southeast of Seoul, it’s in fact a project which aims to regenerate a local village that has suffered from an aging population by creating not only a modern lifestyle concept, but also an alluring context to settle here. The area is historically known for rice and flower farming, and the concrete grid building, designed by Ulsan-based practice On Architects, is obviously more than just a place where to savour coffee concoctions. Indeed, it’s a cross-cultural facility, and a highly experimental one at that, which facilitates interaction between diverse cultures. Additionally, NONSPACE is also about architectural innovation that’s inspired by its surroundings as the building is constructed from exposed concrete with rice straw. Before concrete placement, the sheaves of rice straw were laid on the slab form and drenched with water to absorb the moisture of the concrete.
As the rice straw is expected to remain stuck in the concrete, the form was removed after a very long time, and at a later stage, the sheaves as well while the rice straw stuck in the concrete remained. Interestingly, over time, the atmosphere of space will continue to vary with the straw undergoing changes. Large floor-to-ceiling windows allow in floods of natural light, but also provide sweeping views of the rolling hills that make up the landscape. The grid structure of NONSPACE comes with a number of accessible patios with different themes—they’re either planted with lush trees, feature pebble gardens or ponds, but the rooftop with a series of compartmentalised spaces, is also accessible. The grid’s central ground floor corridor if officially designated as cross-cultural space where a rotation if events are held. As said, NONSPACE is a coffee parlour, and its menu lists a variety of classic concoctions, in addition to signature options, such as Vanilla Bean Latte and Dutch Latte, but also a selection of teas and juices.
NONSPACE
139-12 Dongsan-ro 395beon-gil (Hobeop-myeon)
17397 Icheon
Telephone: +82 507 14727055
Mon-Fri 11am-8pm
Sat-Sun 11am-9pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
