South Korea's Studio Koossino created a concrete building with white and yellow protrusions to provide shared workspaces for an artists' community north of Seoul (+ slideshow).
Designed as a "coffee culture space", the Maxcube facility sits in the cultural village of Heyri, which was set up by a group of writers, painters, actors, architects and musicians.
The reinforced concrete structure houses a cafe, a gallery and workspace for members of the creative community.
Local planning regulations require all buildings to be no more than three storeys tall, so Studio Koossino spread out 822 square metres of floor space to form a roughly cube-shaped structure.
Led by architect Seungmin Koo, the studio finished the majority of the exterior with board-cast concrete.
However, angled volumes created on the first and second levels are covered with a glossy laminate cladding material to highlight changes in the interior layout.
"These conflicting materials and the combination of the laminate surfaces can be concisely read," said Studio Koossino.
Bright yellow – matching the colour used by the studio for a set of asymmetric holiday homes outside the South Korean capital – is also used as an accent on exposed external columns, and for doors and select furniture items inside.
The site is slightly sloped, so the architects spilt the floor height on the ground level.
The entrance is located on the lower portion, as part of a fully glazed wall that is echoed on the opposite facade.
Inside, an assortment of furniture is provided for relaxed working, lounging and dining. Up a few steps, a small kitchen serves coffee and snacks.
The first floor houses a more open workspace, along with meeting rooms in the sections that overhang slightly on one facade.
Above, the external wall is angled along its full length and features large windows from end to end. The other side of this storey is sealed off for craft activities.
An atrium with an angled skylight at its top runs up the centre of the building, crisscrossed with pathways and staircases.
"Natural light through the skylight of the central atrium functions to integrate the three layers," said the studio.
Bathrooms are situated on all three levels, which are also connected by a more efficient stairwell.
Overlapping rectangular panels are suspended from the ceilings, concealing uplighting hidden on their tops.
Floors, stairs and ceilings are all polished concrete, while internal walls, columns and staircase edges are painted white.
Photography is by Jaesung Lee.
Project credits:
Architect: Seungmin Koo
Project team: Studio Koossino, Jae-hwan Lee, Duck-jong Lee, Hye-lim Lee, Soo-Jin Park
Construction company: Sum Construction Co
