Betwin Space Design
3F, Seoulsup-gil 50, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04768, South Korea
Betwin space design was established in Seoul by Hwan-Woo Oh and Jung-Gon Kim in 2008.
Their design concepts are based upon creating experiences between ‘space and people,’ ‘people and objects’ and ‘brand and design’. And in examining their commissions in this way, they have been able to work across a range of sectors and disciplines; designing fashion and cosmetics stores as well as showrooms, restaurants, offices, cinemas and residential interiors.
The execution of these ‘experiences’ manifests itself in different ways. In their concept for cosmetics retailer Aritaum, which hosts three cosmetic brands, the bustling educational ‘stage’ draws customers to the centre of the store, inviting them, to first test and play with the products on offer, then purchase from the concessions around the perimeter of the store.
A contrasting space is their clinical concept for Dr Jart+’s Filter Space Seoul is a ‘healthy beauty’ concept with a difference. Here visitors can experience water, air and light in their purest form in laboratory like surroundings. The air duct theme runs throughout the space creating a daring and exciting concept, both inside and out.
Their equally minimalist design for luxury accessories brand Kwanpen is less about touch and more about looking. Lighting not only illuminates the products on display, but the tubular design focuses the eye directly onto individual items.
Working for the Korean Ginseng Corporation they launched the CheongKwanJang HUB, a new health and beauty concept. The concept features a sweeping curved ceiling and uses simple display cabinets, with perimeter shelving opening up ‘secret’ bookcases to reveal the product storage behind.
They’ve also created numerous restaurant and café concepts from the Zen-like tranquility of Kappo Ku with its simple contrast of light and dark, open and enclosed spaces, to the quirky ice-cream parlour for Remicone; set inside a truck façade with a clinical laboratory like interior.
Betwin’s work flashes between the aesthetic, the brilliant and the playful, and taking a look at their portfolio as a whole, one can definitely feel the quiet consideration in the thought process behind each project, but that’s where the similarity ends.