▼位于乐天百货内的mtl，mtl locates in Lotte Department Store ©Kim Donggyu

The role of “space” in the coffee industry is evolving from mere place where coffee is consumed to the stage of expressing the direction and identity of each brand.Such evolution plays an important role for department stores to contain and display various lifestyles. Lotte Department Store, recently opened in Dongtan, the city in the spotlight as a new residential area in South Korea, has a 238 square metered botanic space for this lifestyle brand “mtl” along with a wide terrace on one side of many other retail shops. “mtl” consists of three programs: a cafe that uses coffee beans from Berlin’s bonanza coffee, as well as a select shop and a seminar lounge. Stof, the studio in charge of its spatial design, intended for the space to be read as one united brand with various values without a specific hierarchy among the programs.