Mangata Restaurant / NOMAL

Architects:NOMAL

Area:91m²

Year:2019

Photographs:Choi Yongjoon

Manufacturers:Benjamin Moore,KCC,Sejeonsa,Younhyun

Landscape:Greenbrother, Jogyoung Sanghoi

Construction:Koopartner

Architect In Charge:Seyeon Cho, Minyuk Chai

Furniture And Wood Works:NOMAL, General Gray

City:Jongno-gu

Country:South Korea

Text description provided by the architects. Restaurant ‘mångata’ means ‘the roadlike reflection of moonlight on water’ in swedish. Our approach for the ‘mångata’ was coexistence. This restaurant serves softness and hardness with variety of experience through the course meal. The Chef had a great ability of using opposite components to coexist together with a harmony. We tried to make a right shell for his food with a right space identity.

Luckily his new site for the restaurant was a very old hanok (Korean traditional house). We decided to give a modern touch with an original hanok atmosphere to represent ‘coexistence’. Original hanok usually have very rough finishes with curvy structure. We used concrete to have a clean finish with a rough looking texture.

Also we used metal canopies to hide linear light which irradiate the typical structure of the hanok. Since the ceiling was a huge identity of the hanok, we wanted to either totally hiding it or totally not touching it. We hid certain ceiling in order to hide old damages and locate our electronic systems.

Since the restaurant serves a course meal, we thought it would be interesting to have different layers for the restaurant. In order to enter the restaurant, a visitors must go through the busy city – quite alley – narrow vestibule – open courthouse – modern hanok space. We thought this could be very dramatic experience for visitors.

Furniture were also specifically designed for the space. Traditional Korean furniture were made by solid wood and special joints. In order to modernize the furniture, all designs are based in modern minimal form of chairs with traditional joints. This furniture design emphasized the the coexistence of the modern and traditional.

Project gallery

Project location

Address:Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea