首尔“未来农场”展示空间 | 探寻现代食品生产透明化之路

Location: 54 Apgujeong-ro 42-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Design, Brand: N.Thing

Acting as a showroom, café and retail space for Korean agri-tech brand N.Thing, its Gangnam-gu, Seoul outpost seeks to bridge the gap between consumers and modern food production.

Key features

Agriculture tech startup N.Thing opened a showroom-cum-hospitality-cum-retail space in in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The main element of Sik Mul Sung Dosan, the 'smart farm' showroom, is a showcase of its flagship product, a modular vertical farming system and operating system called Cube. The product is displayed to showcase the process of growing vegetables under precise environmental conditions. It also serves as an essential design element with the metal vertical grids of growing leafy green vegetables lining the store's walls, adding colour and light. The agricultural system is tended to by an automated robot, providing entertainment and an experiential element. Customers can also harvest some of the crops grown in the store.

To encourage guests to further explore the smart farming technology, a café space was integrated into the store. Visitors can enjoy vegetable-based beverages, like pea protein lattes, sprout soy milk and basil pine sorbet, developed by celebrity chef Ho Yun Kim. A metal bar and stools provides a direct view of the wall of crops. The space also accommodates a retail space for N.Thing's Nemome product, an at-home hydroponics kit.

Frame's take

There is a long line of stakeholders involved in the production of food before it reaches one's plate. Farming, harvesting, transportation and preparation precede consumption, meaning that people are often far removed from the food production process. Sik Mul Sung Dosan helps to bridge the gap between consumers and modern agricultural practices.

Adopting the role of a traditional farm store – presented in a modern package – the space seeks to familiarize customers with the changing agricultural landscape. When imagining a farm one may immediately think of the countryside, barn houses and open fields, not bright white lights and vertical rows of plants. N.Thing brings its high-tech farm directly to the consumer and makes it palatable; with drinks based on crops grown with its technology and the opportunity for self-harvesting, the brand introduces the modern consumer to modern food production techniques.