As we’ve said earlier, coffee culture is booming in Seoul, and the city offers aficionados a huge variety of places where indulging in the coveted hot beverage comes with a distinct design-led setting. One of the recent notable openings in this flourishing hospitality segment is OBO. Short for ‘one by one’, the café is tucked away in a maze of alleyways in Huam-dong, an outlying northern neighbourhood of the sprawling South Korean capital, and on top of that, it’s housed in what seems an introverted yet somewhat stately structure. Designed by local design studio mannal, the discreetly stuccoed gate and façade, and plain brick staircase doesn’t exactly give away that OBO is a place where to indulge and make happy memories. The interior design is understated with a distinct raw edge.
The interior design makes use of the building’s concrete shell, laying bare the floor and other sections as a backdrop of several interventions, most notably a tiled-up service counter. Furnishings and fixtures in the 82 sqm. (883 sq.ft.) space are few and simple, comprising a large communal table and chairs, and in the adjacent rooms, additional seating comes in the form of a low wooden bench paired with whitewashed timber side tables. Additional seating can be found on the outdoor terrace. Special attention has been given to lighting, and OBO‘s interior sees not only a number of industrial inspired light fixtures, but also backlit whimsical phrases which adorn various nooks and crannies across the premises. The menu at OBO lists various coffee concoctions, in addition to a wide range of cookies and pastries freshly made by pastry chef Kim & Cake.
OBO
51 Duteopbawi-ro (Huam-dong)
04335 Seoul
Telephone: +82 50 714158009
Daily 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.
