Atop a 1970s building in Kuantan, a new Korean barbecue spot, Jibungae KBBQ, has taken up residence in vivid hues. A bright-orange double-eave canopy provides shade above a double seating area positioned on the diagonal; a series of street-food cart—reminiscent benches line the perimeter and a cityscape mural in a motley palette frames one edge. The result is a rambunctious 450-square-metre restaurant on a rooftop that had never been designed to accommodate such a lively hospitality venue.
JUJURWORK, the firm helmed by Evelyn Jingjie Wong, sees this project as a potential case study for reclaiming the fifth facades of buildings across “low-rise, low-density coastal cities” like Kuantan. These rooftops are often “underutilized,” the firm explains, and mostly given over to mechanical plants. “Jibungae KBBQ addresses this spatial condition by reinterpreting the rooftop as an elevated civic vantage point.”
From this vantage point, patrons have a view of Kuantan River and landmarks like the State Mosque, Menara 188 and the Kuantan bridge. The sightline directly connects them to their immediate milieu in the midst of a vibrant, multi-layered and eras-spanning urban fabric. Yet, because this is a Korean restaurant in a non-Korean city, the project’s major design moves pay homage to Seoul with the ardent enthusiasm of an outside admirer. The firm does this by “transposing the high-density, informal sociology of downtown Seoul’s street culture onto an exposed, tropical rooftop in Peninsular Malaysia.”
The “conceptual framework,” then, synthesizes hallyu and tropical urbanism. Hallyu refers to the Korean Wave, or the world’s ever-growing fascination with Korean pop culture since the 1990s, when everything from K-pop to Korean beauty products and Korean cinema became mainstream juggernauts. According to JUJURWORK, the restaurant’s design “synthesizes these global-local narratives by mapping them directly into three core spatial typologies that organize the restaurant’s programming.” Those typologies are the Pojangmacha, the Hanok and the bustling Korean streetscape.
The Pojangmacha references the ubiquitous outdoor food cart that provides late-night eats, which JUJURWORK refers to as “an ad-hoc social incubator.” At Jibungae KBBQ, it takes the form of a casual bench-like seating area with a framework reminiscent of the original. These seating systems are arranged around the roofline, their uprights suspending lanterns above the tables.
The Hanok is a traditional Korean house whose roof is comprised of sloped and tiled eaves. At Jibungae KBBQ, it shows up as that yellow canopy with its double upward curves, “abstracted into a skeletal industrial steel framework.” Like all the macro furnishings, this feature is made of prefab components (its six base units and six roof units) assembled onsite. The base units link together to create an integrated platform base, bench seating, and vertical back panel clad in ribbed, translucent polycarbonate sheets; the roof units slot directly into the vertical steel posts of the base.
The bustling Korean streetscape is conjured by the motley mural — a screen comprised of colourful building silhouettes with “mock LED signage.” It lines one side of the roof, where it blocks the view onto an unsightly rooftop next door.
To bring this multi-part program together, the architects had to re-engineer the original two skylights: The rear skylight is now a fire-code-compliant emergency exit, while the central one was replaced by a steel and glass floor that provides a transition between the front and rear of the restaurant — and a stage for performances. All the heavier additions — the kitchen and the reception and beverage stations — are situated atop structural massing and load-bearing walls.
What ties the pieces together is a visual language that revels in colour and graphics. From the citrus-y light fixtures to vampy red chairs, from the perforated orange screens of the kitchen to the stainless-steel bbq tables, this is a Korean spot that will entice guests to the top of the building.
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