{"id":444730,"date":"2026-02-02T14:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444730\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:22:11","slug":"obelisk-like-columns-rise-through-restaurant-in-botanical-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444730\/","title":{"rendered":"“Obelisk-like” columns rise through restaurant in botanical garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chilean studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen<\/a> has installed a restaurant at Les Jardins de M\u00e9dongaule, in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, featuring 16 huge green concrete columns.<\/p>\n

Providing a roof terrace as well as a restaurant, the towering structure is the latest addition to a new botanical garden complex located northeast of Seoul.<\/p>\n

\"\u00dcberhausThe structure comprises 16 columns and a horizontal slab suspended midway up<\/p>\n

Its official name is \u00dcberhaus, reflecting its vantage point overlooking the gardens, but architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen call the building Rest, indicating its function as both a restaurant and a rest stop.<\/p>\n

The 10-metre-high columns organise the building into a precise square grid, dissected midway up by a concrete slab of the same thickness.<\/p>\n

\"RoofA terrace covers the building’s roof<\/p>\n

This slab forms the floor of the vast roof terrace, where a balustrade draws a large circle to define the boundary between accessible and inaccessible space.<\/p>\n

The restaurant’s 100-seat dining room is located underneath, with its floorplate suspended between the concrete slab and the sloping landscape. The kitchen and other facilities are buried underground, covered by a stepped plaza.<\/p>\n

\"SkylightThe restaurant dining room sits between the concrete slab and a stepped plaza<\/p>\n

“The open plan is explicitly characterised into three strata,” explained Pezo and Von Ellrichshausen, who delivered the building in collaboration with local studio See Architects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The lower one follows the natural topography, with a covered amphitheatre funnelled towards the lower valley,” said the duo.<\/p>\n

“The intermediate one is suspended under a thick platform, with a diagonal symmetry formed by open corner terraces at opposite ends, and the upper one is over the non-directional horizontal platform, with a panoramic view framed in multiple orientations by 10-metre-tall, obelisk-like, free-standing columns.”<\/p>\n

\"SteppedThe columns contain lifts, storage spaces and toilet cubicles<\/p>\n

\u00dcberhaus is one of several landmark buildings in the 23,000-square-metre Les Jardins de M\u00e9dongaule<\/a>, which opened in September 2025.<\/p>\n

Showcasing the history and future of the Korean garden, the complex also includes the Seongok Seowon Academy<\/a>, an education facility designed by Seung H-Sang<\/a> of Iroje Architects & Planners, and a cloud-shaped entrance building by Ensamble Studio<\/a> that is still under construction.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"View<\/p>\n

Pezo von Ellrichshausen organises pink concrete Lima House around pool\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00dcberhaus borders a forest at the western edge of the complex, furthest from the entrance, serving as a destination for visitors after they have walked through the gardens.<\/p>\n

While past Pezo von Ellrichshausen buildings feature pigmented concrete in shades of yellow<\/a> and pink<\/a>, the architects created a soft green shade here by adding a silicate pigment.<\/p>\n

\"RampSloping bridges spiral up from the ground to the roof terrace<\/p>\n

The columns are square in footprint, measuring two metres in both width and depth. Four of them contain lifts, while others provide storage spaces and toilet cubicles.<\/p>\n

Most visitors access the restaurant and roof terrace via ramped bridges that slope up from the landscape in neat circles. Another route involves a spiral staircase in the building’s west corner, which rises from the stepped terrace.<\/p>\n

\"DiningOak clads ceilings and lines the inside of circular skylights<\/p>\n

The design offers a continuation of the ideas behind Pezo von Ellrichshausen’s Less pavilion<\/a> in Canberra, Australia, which also featured a strict grid of thin vertical elements.<\/p>\n

The architects bring strict geometries to most of their buildings, but these are the first to explore the column as an organising system.<\/p>\n

\"\u00dcberhausA green pigment changed the colour of the concrete<\/p>\n

They suggest that the columns be used in different ways, “as supports for garlands, candles or canopies”.<\/p>\n

“The massive columns and slab, in their boldness, promote a sense of enduring presence, of discreet contemplation, of arcane shadows within an opaque and transparent milieu,” said the architects.<\/p>\n

“In as much as the columns remain inexpressive, there is a vacant space, both physical and mental, to be filled.”<\/p>\n

\"\u00dcberhausThe building is located in Les Jardins de M\u00e9dongaule, northeast of Seoul<\/p>\n

Terrazzo paving provides floor surfaces both inside the building and underneath it. Oak boards clad the ceilings, lining deep circular skylights, while bronze-toned aluminium frames the glass walls.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Pezo von Ellrichshausen.<\/p>\n

Project credits:<\/p>\n

Architects: Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Collaborators: Emilie Kjaer, Francesco Caminati, Masha Arnold, Manuel Heck, Beatrice Pedrotti, Lukas Vajda
Local architect: See Architects
Structure: Chang Minwoo
Construction: C&O
Consultants: Macand Mec Inkok Enc, Rainbowscape
Landscape: Jardins de Sericourt\/Dongsimwon Landscape Design<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chilean studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen has installed a restaurant at Les Jardins de M\u00e9dongaule, in South Korea’s Gyeonggi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,85029,169842,11420,229,88,207627,4322,64879,64880,1866],"class_list":{"0":"post-444730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-board-marked-concrete","12":"tag-coloured-concrete","13":"tag-concrete","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-pezo-von-ellrichshausen","17":"tag-restaurants","18":"tag-sectionall","19":"tag-sectionarchitecture","20":"tag-south-korea"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}