Maxim Plant

The Café as an Urban PlazaSuddenly, it is not misleading to think of these cafés, which have long permeated deep into our lives as significant works of urban infrastructure. There are always cafés in the corners of libraries, schools, hospitals, sports gyms, and government office buildings, and they are busy with people chatting over coffee or spending​ time alone deeply in their thoughts. As the lights of 24-hour convenience stores act as streetlights of in the back alleyways, cafés attract people from all ages and backgrounds as functioning as urban plazas. Now, cafés have become the contemporary agora.The fact that these entrepreneurs view location as a commodity that is worth investing in is a huge opportunity for architects and space designers. With the accumulation of capital and talent, cafés have become a colourful experimental board in urban and spatial design.​

 

The elevation facing the main street is a juxtaposition of folding glass doors, patterned fixed glazing, and perforated metal panels that fold as needed to provide shade, and is transforming throughout the day.​ 

 

2When questioned about how the brand​ Maxim was reflected in the space, the architect answered, ‘I drew two meanings from the word “plant”, both as a factory and as vegetation.’ By creating a two-floor space underground(first and second floors) and by placing a huge coffee roasting machine there, Gene Park expressed the image of a ‘factory’. Visitors can enjoy their drinks as they watch the coffee beans being roasted. Of course, in the case of Maxim, the chimney-type factory to make their instant coffee products would be their real ‘plant’, but Park explained that he wanted to express it more symbolically through the image of a roasting machine that was more accessible to the public. The large metal wall picture that depicts the coffee making process emphasises once more the symbol of a factory.

The main coffee bar serves as the focal point of the open space that allows visual connections both horizontally and vertically. Indoor planting provides diffused natural light throughout the interior.​ 

 

Fresh coffee beans are roasted and packaged here in the glass-enclosed room which can be viewed from multiple levels. A teaching lab, café, and archive space surround it.​ 

 

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The coffee bean shaped perforated metal panels can be open or closed to provide shade from the late afternoon sun and privacy at night. It transforms into a lantern at night as viewed from the street.​ 

 

The indoor ‘Porch’ connected to narrow outdoor terrace becomes an indoor/outdoor space when the folding door is open. Planting provides natural screening from the sun.​ 

 

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The beauty of the Maxim Plant is that the building’s owner and the architect agreed that the building should play the role of an urban plaza and park. When the folding doors installed on the ground floor (third floor) of the western entrance are all open,​ the interior space of the café transforms into a pocket plaza that opens towards Itaewon. By installing garage doors on the inside of the pocket plaza, the inside temperatures can be managed throughout summer and winter.

View of the third floor coffee bar and seating area from the upper level. Spaces can be divided via operable shutters and opened to the terrace with folding doors.​ 

 

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Now that cafés have been promoted as the agora of this age, it is appropriate that gestures towards the public domain are actively developed at this point. A streetside that faces the pedestrians and a terrace that allows people to enjoy the urban landscape–developing such architectural vocabularies that reach out to various groups of people is as significant as experimenting with ingredients and details for café architecture.​

 

The entry level has a double layer of folding and automatic glass overhead doors which offer flexibility to change the front sitting area into an open pop-up shop as needed.​ 

 

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