About this place
ONE O ONE Architects' flagship for Sulwhasoo luxury skincare in Bukchon — a house-scaled retail space where traditional Korean aesthetics and contemporary spatial sequence reframe the buying of beauty products as a cultural experience.
House of Sulwhasoo Bukchon is the flagship concept space for Amorepacific's premium Korean herbal skincare brand, designed by Choi Wook of ONE O ONE Architects and located in the Bukchon area of Jongno-gu — a neighbourhood defined by hanok houses, traditional-scale urban fabric, and a dense concentration of galleries and cultural spaces.
The spatial approach is rooted in the concept of the traditional Korean house as a sequence of thresholds and enclosed gardens rather than a sequence of rooms with defined functions. The experience of moving through the space is designed to mirror the unhurried, ceremonial character of Korean sarangbang (reception room) culture — visitors are slowed down, offered tea, guided through zones that introduce different aspects of the brand's herbal formulations and production methods.
ONE O ONE Architects, led by Choi Wook, is known for work that engages seriously with both contemporary spatial ideas and the specific spatial and material traditions of Korean domestic architecture. In the Sulwhasoo flagship, the material palette — wood, stone, natural textiles, indirect lighting — is drawn from the traditional vocabulary while the spatial organisation is contemporary in its compression and sequence.
The building sits within the Bukchon neighbourhood context as an appropriate scale and facing; viewed from the street it reads as a house, not a shop. Visit in the morning when the light enters from the courtyard openings at their best angle.
Retail · Concept StoreInterior · Retail Interior