In visiting this one bedroom loft, located in the Jung-Wha-dong neighbourhood of the Jungnang-gu district, Seoul, we find a soothing living wall with a dual sided design. The unique modern interior is situated up on the top floor of a 30 year old industrial building, with an area of 80 square metres, which is split into two floors. The custom layout and bespoke furniture was designed by architects Arcave to suit the wishes of a professional female homeowner with a deep interest in well-being. It was the client who requested the creation of the double height, double sided green wall as the special revitalising centerpiece for her home.
Although modest in size, the interior layout feels spacious thanks to a minimalist aesthetic and a light colour scheme of white walls and natural wood tone. A silver floor lamp arcs beside a neat two seater grey sofa in the open plan living room, with a small accent chair situated on the opposite side of the lounge layout.
There is a home workspace located to one side of the main living area, where a desk stands at a right angle up against the tv wall, in a peninsula fashion. The desk chair is situated to face into the lounge rather than looking outward toward the windows, though this could quickly be reconfigured to suit the mood and task at hand.
A group of indoor plants plants stand in pots on the floor next to the bespoke double sided living wall design at the centre of the downstairs floor plan.
Mirrors clad a structural support column in the living room, which visually reduces its solidity in the free flowing open space. One wooden step and a wood landing area leads into the open sided staircase design, which climbs directly past the vertical living wall so that they work together as one elegant volume.
The interior living wall also serves as a beautiful room divider, providing a visual buffer between the home entryway and the lounge with home office. Because this room divider doesn’t touch the wall, all of the natural light through the windows on each side is free to flow into both sections of the room.
A dining room is situated on the same wall as the home entry door, with a dining table peninsula jutting from a run of wooden cabinets. These units are not the kitchen, which is actually situated through a door to the right. It is probable that the cupboards nearest the entryway are used for general home storage, with the units on the right housing tableware and an integrated wine cooler.
Wood ceiling panels join the dining room with the home entryway. The elegant white dining pendant light is the Bell Pendant by Normann Copenhagen.
The living wall planters are affixed to mirrored panels. Slivers of silver glint from behind the green tumbling foliage.
The very minimalist staircase design has a simple white powder coated metal banister, which climbs the full height of the staircase ascent without the addition of spindles.
A great raw beam contrasts with the uber clean and sleek white finish of the staircase and custom white wall planters.
Sunlight spills down the staircase and green wall from a series of picture windows that are located on the second floor of the loft home.
The indoor plants flourish in the sunlight that blesses the home, and the mirrored backing of the living wall shines right back through the gaps.
Where the indoor vertical garden reaches the ceiling, at the second floor of the home, there is a white bedroom situated on a mezzanine structure. Clear glass balustrades keep the green wall fully on view beside the bed, whilst making safe the gap between the edge of the mezzanine platform and the planting wall. At the foot of the bed, a door leads off the bedroom to a narrow storage area, and into a separate bathroom. An outdoor deck surrounds the entire upper floor.
Back downstairs we take a peek inside the white and wood kitchen at last. The room has a unique half and half design that cuts it straight down the middle. All of the wood units are to the left of the galley kitchen layout with a grey countertop, and an entire wall of white units with matching countertop and backsplash fill up the right. Warm sunlight washes down the narrow kitchen, making it a pleasant and welcoming space to come into and cook.
The ground floor plan shows the indoor garden opposite the entry door of the two story loft space; the staircase design to the mezzanine bedroom situated just behind it. From here we can observe the proximity of the dining room to the separate kitchen. A very generous walk in closet is installed directly next door to the kitchen, which is accessed via a dedicated laundry room. At the end of the laundry room, there is a convenient downstairs restroom attached.
The second floor plan shows how the staircase design from the living room attaches to the mezzanine bedroom. We can also observe the position of the door to the upstairs storage area and the second floor bathroom. The shaded area represents the outdoor deck.
This exploded diagram illustrates the bespoke structure of the double height, double sided living wall design, including the drainage and gutter system.
A closer look at one of the living wall planter cells.
