French studio Uchronia has completed the interiors for Cafe Shin in Paris, which features a central coffee counter topped with a washi-paper roof to emulate a traditional Korean house.
Located on Rue des Petites-Écuries in the city’s 10th arrondissement, Cafe Shin was designed to pay tribute to Seoul’s thriving coffee culture.
“The idea was to create a place that is halfway between Paris and Seoul,” Uchronia founder Julien Sebban told Dezeen.
In the centre of the cafe, Sebban and his team placed a coffee counter and open kitchen, where pastries and kimbap seaweed rolls are prepared.
The structure is made from smooth light wood, with handmade washi paper used to cover the structure’s gabled roof – as well as the surrounding cafe walls – offering a contemporary take on traditional Korean hanok houses.
Chunky coloured-ash stools by design studio Oryu Elements line the counter, reflected in a gleaming base clad in sheets of hammered metal.
Towards the back of Cafe Shin, Uchronia created an additional seating nook that takes cues from South Korean bathhouses known as jjimjilbang.
“The bathhouses gained popularity in the 1990s and served as places where people used to hang out,” said Sebban.
Accessed via small steps, the nook was designed with blocky built-in seating reminiscent of saunas and clad with swimming pool-style blue-ombre tiles by Dutch brand Palet.
“The tile patterns and colours were specifically created for this project,” explained the designer.
Colourful, flower-shaped Uchronia cushions synonymous with the studio’s bold design approach were scattered across the nook, which also features another chunky ash stool.
“We wanted to create a real contrast between the main room adorned with washi paper and this one, playing with transparency on one side of the cafe and patterns on the other,” added Sebban.
The same tiles that line the nook were used to clad the eatery’s blue-hued facade and to create a wall-mounted shelf and bar counter in the main room, providing extra storage and seats for diners.
Cafe Shin is a collaboration between two friends – French chef Julien Sebbag and South Korean pastry chef Shin Eun Jung. The pair created the cafe to “shake up the already established codes of traditional coffee shops”.
Uchronia, which took home a Dezeen Award for emerging interior design studio of the year in 2023, has completed a range of projects in Paris characterised by vibrant colours and undulating shapes.
The studio’s portfolio includes a Haussmann-era apartment designed for a duo of jewellery designers that resembles a “chromatic jewellery box” and Sebban’s self-designed home, created as a “love letter to French craft”.
The photography is courtesy of Uchronia.
