Cafe With Volcanic Stone Walls in South Korea by Platform

Located on the once volcanic Jeju island, South Korea, Platform Monsant is a crafted expression of its landscape – a sand-less island littered with deep earthy red boulders spewed forth from another age. As hot as those volcanic boulders once were, Platform_A’s newly built 198m2 café and viewing outpost is a piping hot example of how to not only borrow, but also enhance a place’s character. Finished late last year it has been receiving some well-deserved attention for its delicate integration of architecture and landscape – particularly how its materiality does this. Falling pretty hard for Platform_A, their consideration of materiality, place and form has made them a shoe-in for my archi-bae’ of the week.

Providing a viewing platform to watch the sun rise, track across the sky and descend back into the watery depths, Platform Monsants’ southern and western glazed façade-treatments project the outside in. Taking in all that open sea and light, the façade also incorporates three behemoth glass doors, effortlessly pivoting out towards the landscape. At the same time, the glazing has been treated to reflect its context externally, beautifully mirroring the place’s dry and barren character. I know, the use of glass as a reflective device is incorporated time and again, but seriously, could you pick a better place to use it? Literally moulding the landscape into a set of neatly arranged dry stonewalls, Platform_A’s use and interpretation of local materials echoes the place’s sense of time and space. Using the site’s volcanic stone to offset an otherwise glazed box, the walls are speckled with light seeping from its interior, expressing the occupation of landscape. Such a beaut!

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The building’s main form is offset against a crumbling old wall that elegantly creates a space between the building and itself and guides visitors upwards and towards the roof terrace – which, as far as roof terraces go, could be better. Internally however, the two wall type constructions converge creating a moment over the bar that once again, brings the outside in. Looked down upon by a modern ceiling treatment peppered by expansive light voids, these motif walls interact with each other and create a defining interiority that is all encompassing.

As I’m pretty sure this project would make the architecture/landscape angels sing, Platform_A is a name to look out for. Well done guys, can’t wait to see more.