Banchan

Project: Korean restaurant
Type: Architectural practice
Location: Parkmore, Johannesburg
Year: 2024

The brief

An existing office building reprogrammed as a Korean restaurant, drawing on Korean architecture’s celebration of timber. The courtyard becomes a glass-roofed bar; the office blocks become an eating hall and a tea room.

Franklin Ndhlovu at Evolve Habitats, with Nicholas Witchutt Architects.

The courtyard bar

Long tables under a pitched glass and timber roof between brick walls — The existing courtyard, roofed in glass and timber, becomes the bar.

The eating hall

Restaurant with grill tables, extraction hoods and curved slatted timber booths — Former office space, now the eating hall.

Curved timber booths with pink upholstery in a dark-timbered dining room — Booths under the exposed roof structure.

The tea room

Tea room with lit timber shelving, a round window, terrazzo floor and green armchairs — Lit timber shelving, a round window and a terrazzo floor.

Arrival

The main entrance: a brick path through a lawn to a white door set in a brick wall — The main entrance.

Council drawings

Site development plan sheet with the locality plan, area schedule and two 3D views — Site development plan, sheet A100.

Sections sheet with five building sections, an eaves detail and SANS 10400 tables — Sections A–A to E–E and the eaves detail, sheet A104.