Everything points to the beach at this South Korean cafe in the coastal town of Busan, where picture windows and low-profile furniture create a sweeping sight line to the rugged shore beyond.

Seoul-based practice Matter Better Interior Design Studio (mttb) designed the cafe for local company Off.O, from branding to its monochrome interiors that riff on the rugged rocks along Busan Beach.

The 6,340 sq ft cafe and bakery is the centrepiece of a three-building complex – also accommodating back-of-house operations – and is decked in a black-and-white colour scheme.

Matte black wooden tables and low-hanging pendants contrast all-white walls and have a ‘charred’ aesthetic at first glance. A gentle arch in the ceilings adds a sense of movement to the space, culminating with long, horizontal glass panes peering onto the rocky shore.

Slate tones in the bakery continue the natural feel, with interior pathways lined by rock-filled ‘wells’, evocative of a zen garden.

Busan is known as the ‘Miami of South Korea’ thanks to its expansive beaches, mountains, and temples and is the second-largest city in the country. It has been a launch pad for the country’s thriving though internationally overlooked coffee culture (South Korean adults consume 353 cups of coffee a year, more than 2.7 times the global average.)

[Via The Cool Hunter]

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