Jeju Glass House

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Meeting Tadao Ando in Jeju. Glass House, designed by Tadao Ando in 2008, is located on Phoenix Island. It houses Mint Cafe and Mint Studio on the first floor and Mint Restaurant on the second floor. Ando prioritized not the building’s functionality but how to encapsulate Jeju’s nature into the architecture. As a result, Glass House faces east towards Seongsan Ilchulbong, the site of Korea’s first sunrise, and adopts a V-shaped mass using exposed concrete and glass. Unlike the nearby Yumin Art Museum, which merges with the landscape along a descending slope, Glass House is entirely exposed to nature. Both the museum and Glass House offer distinct views of Seongsan Ilchulbong but deliver different experiences due to the way they frame the landscape. The main entrance of Glass House, acting as a frame, reveals the building’s rear first. Following the slope, visitors reach the entrance, known as the 'wind’s door'. Phoenix Island introduces the sequential experience of Tadao Ando’s architecture as ‘a continuous story of space’, featuring extreme simplicity, closed entrance, and dramatic contrast. Location: Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, 46 Goseong-ri. Operating hours: 10:00-18:00. Parking: Available at Phoenix Jeju Seopjikoji parking lot.