A significant project by Lyndon Neri and Rosanna Hu intertwines with the iconic and mythological value that the lantern holds in Asian culture: a tool that guides through the darkness, showing the way and indicating the beginning and end of a journey.

This concept is the foundation of the structure created for the Sulwhasoo flagship store, an Asian skincare brand, in Seoul, South Korea.

The building initially designed by Korean architect IROJE and constructed in 2003 has been revised according to the three ideas of identity, journey, and memory. The structure with its imposing volume was also meant to immediately attract the customer and create around them a dynamic experience that also unfolds through the store.

The reference to the lantern is given by the brass structure that connects the entire store across all different levels. This creates a series of voids and openings and visitors experience this movement created by the structure.

The structure rests on solid wooden planks from which counters or stone blocks rise, used to display products presented as precious objects. The structure creates corridors, refines exhibition areas, and houses lighting systems: it permeates every space from the basement spa to the treatment rooms, the store, and the rooftop terrace.

The project creates a contradiction between closed and open, dark and light, delicate and massive. In an endless “intrigue” that teases the visitor and their sense of discovery.