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Architects: Bananafish
- Area: 423 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Kim Min Chul
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Lead Architects: Choi Pil Joo, Pang Ji A
‘Hellomonday’ is a share-office brand in Seongsu-dong of Seoul, Korea, founded by Star Properties Korea(SPK)- a Hong Kong-based real estate company. Hellomonday pursues a space that allows everyone to experience new styles of workspace in a trivial round of daily life. We have been opening several offices with different concepts, to provide our customers with a novel experience: Coner 19 with a pent-office concept (located at Yeonmujang-gil), Coner 25 with a green lifestyle office concept (located at Seongsu 1-gil), Coner 50 with a creator office concept (located at Seongsu 2-gil), in chronological order. Especially, Coner 25(C25) proudly provides a perfect view of the Han River and Seoul Forest from amongst decrepit factories; the office is in a decrepit factory industrial area that used to play a central role in producing handmade shoes, wigs, steel products, and prints in the 1970s.
We were entrusted with the interior designs of this C25 building. Our client requested to design a reception hall and a lounge on the 9th floor, a sharable kitchen area on the 10th floor, and a sharable studio on the 11th floor. During the first meeting, our client requested a completely different lounge design from the original architectural design, to creatively capture the essence of regional characters. It was difficult to portray what the client has envisioned due to its limited space on the 9th floor. The sharable kitchen and studio surrounded an open space in an L shape; therefore, we were forced to divide this limited open space to fit a reception desk, café, and lounge. Rather than dividing the room into three separate spaces, we conjugated a large bar table and used it as a landmark of all three: reception desk, café, and lounge.
For this iconic furniture, a double-layer finish was applied using eco-friendly fiber panels, portraying the gesture of reusing this abandoned factorial area. Especially, the outer rectangular fiber panels are arranged in a consistent diagonal direction, allowing the second layer on the inside to be visible. This allows a visual effect of the ever-changing façade of the furniture as you walk across the bar. To focus on this lounge area design, the surrounding kitchen, and studio were designed minimally with a concrete-inspired ceramic finish and white-toned furniture, avoiding vibrant colors. The kitchen and studios on the 10th floor were designed to be slightly more luxurious, while still maintaining a distinct style difference from those of the 9th floor. This allows users to have the option of choosing according to their preferences.
On the 11th floor, the highest floor of Hellomonday C25, there are a rooftop garden and a greenhouse-style multipurpose room. The glasshouse, surrounded by the rooftop garden, had to be transformative in designs to properly fit the purpose of each event: a dining hall, a lecture hall, a gymnasium, a conference room, or even a small party hall. The main furniture in this space was designed using different types of recycled fiber panels, forming a unit that consists of a table and a pair of chairs. The tables and chairs as units were allowed to be rearranged to form a long hall table or a short lecture hall desk or to be put away to clear the floor. Service tables and storage closets were also made relocatable to fit the various purposes of the floor. Wall shelves on this floor, also relocatable, were made using a metal frame and color-glass shelves. This design gave birth to the charms of the 11th floor; observing the ever-changing play of light created by the sunlight filtering through the glasshouse into the glass shelves gives bliss to its observer. As the sun moves, the shadows cast by the glass shelves create a mesmerizing display of evolving colors.
