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.
![](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Beach-Cafe%CC%81_08-783x1024.jpeg)
Photography: Yongjoon Choi
![](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Beach-Cafe%CC%81_06-769x1024.jpeg)
Photography: Yongjoon Choi
![](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Beach-Cafe%CC%81_05-1024x731.jpeg)
Photography: Yongjoon Choi
![](https://cdn.thespaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Beach-Cafe%CC%81_02-1024x683.jpeg)
Photography: Yongjoon Choi
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.
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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.)
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