NATURAL HIGH
Fhhh Friends
ARCHITECTS
Fhhh Friends
LEAD ARCHITECT
Han Seung Jae, Han Yang Kyu, Yoon Han Jin
DESIGN TEAM
Park Hyesang, On Jinsung
ENGINEERING & CONSULTING > OTHER
Glow Design
PHOTOGRAPHS
Roh Kyung
AREA
142 m²
YEAR
2019
LOCATION
Seoul, South Korea
CATEGORY
Coffee Shop Interiors
English description provided by the architects.
There are landscapes so abundant that they make one feel full just by looking. Green trees, streams of flowing wine, the freshness of youth, sunlight pouring down, and the sound of laughter.
We are drawn to such things because everyone harbors a desire for abundance. Yet abundance belongs to a particular moment in time, and people cultivate flowers, tend gardens, and lie beneath shade in order to enjoy that moment.
In the dry city, I wonder what allows us to feel abundance. The size of a house, the figures printed in a bankbook, a respectable business card tucked into a wallet…
Modern people find abundance in things that are practically useful.
We may not want to admit it, but we live in an age where texts and numbers carry utility—and at the same time, in an age where we still wish to deny that fact.
Perhaps green trees, flowing wine, youthful vigor, bright sunshine, and carefree laughter must now be called a classical form of abundance.
In the old European cities, that classical abundance still lingers. Deep green parks encountered while walking, small squares where clean water runs from old spouts.
These moments of effortless generosity remind us not to forget what abundance once meant.
One might think, "If only we plant trees here and build a fountain, won't abundance return?"
But such a thought feels uneasy. Stepping out of a shop door in Seoul, what we face are tall street trees paired with the stout proportions of high-rise buildings, black jackets in rows, and sidewalks paved with identical blocks.
When we admire what we do not have too readily, it often leaves a tinge of melancholy.
In ancient Persia, carpets were made in imitation of nature. They extracted pigments from natural sources, wove in the patterns of the landscape, and lived upon them.
In their own way, they memorialized an unchanging moment of abundance. What was commemorated at Natural High was precisely such a fleeting garden-like abundance, encountered by chance.
Just as the Persians once employed thread and dye to mimic the natural world, here stone, steel, and concrete were used to recreate its scenery.
