The things that fill this space are generally witty. When you open the door and enter, you will notice a bar with stools made of particle board (OSB plywood) made by gluing thin pieces of wood together. The bar was completed by making a support using a perforated aluminum plate and placing a top of thick plywood in a dark wood color on top of it. The wall on the kitchen side was made of particleboard, the same material as the bar stool, to add a rustic yet warm feel.
If you look around, you will see a DJ stand illuminated by stand lights. There is a turntable on a bar-like stand, and pastel-colored plasterboard holds wooden storage boxes and forms a wall. Each of these storage boxes is sized to tightly wrap 12 LPs and a pair of JBL speakers.
The seat is a steel chair with a leather-covered seat, and next to it is a pastel-colored iron storage box. In contrast to the white painted cement wall, aluminum blinds in different pastel colors hang on the windowsill. Glass lights hanging from the ceiling illuminate the bar and seats with a warm glow. I thought I should order coffee now, so I looked at the menu and saw that there was writing printed on greaseproof paper.
There are cutely distorted mugs piled up on the walls, as well as illustrated posters depicting pudding, the signature dish here. Various materials such as wood, steel, plaster, glass, and paper are combined in one piece, but the combination takes place with each other in a witty rather than forced manner. The perfection of wit is hospitality and song selection. Choi Hyeok, the CEO of this place who has gained experience in leading specialty coffee brands, skillfully serves drinks that suit the tastes of regulars. On social media, he describes his commute to work as a ‘working holiday’, and he also writes in his diary that he is memorizing the names of dogs that walk in front of his store.
Strangely, they joke that they don’t know how they know that customers come to the cafe, but they do their best to welcome customers, from drinks to music selections. The song selection list presented once a month is like an interior where various materials are harmonized, and pop, popular music, disco, jazz, and electronic music are mixed without a sense of discomfort.
After leaving the cafe and walking around the neighborhood, I noticed that this place had its own culture. People who walk through a shopping mall lined with famous brand signs illuminated according to the planned movement path often find shopping malls irregularly located between low-altitude residential areas. Like the nickname commonly given to areas with clusters of low-rise houses with shops on the first floor, the commercial area of Bamgasi Village is also called ‘Bamnidan-gil’. In places where residential and commercial spaces are combined, something happens all the time.
In the morning, when sunlight filters through the low buildings, residential spaces become quiet as residents go to work. However, soon after, the stores that opened were again filled with local residents and customers who came from long distances. When the streetlights dimly illuminate the streets, the windows above closed shopping malls are always lit. Large apartment complexes are barred, and in residential areas, windows with security windows are installed to control the inflow of outsiders. When night falls in a city full of commercial buildings, the streets become as lonely as the unlit signboards. However, the warmth never disappears on Bamridan-gil, where commercial and residential spaces are harmoniously combined.
<한국 주택 유전자>In , Park Cheol-soo says, ‘Even in 1970, apartments accounted for only 0.77% of all housing in Korea.’ At that time, people were afraid of houses without yards. There was a strong aversion to the high-rise apartments that did not have a crockpot, where one could not fully enjoy the sunlight, and where one could not live with neighbors across a wall. Large-scale apartment complexes are also considered places where urban problems occur even in the West, so our current residential culture, which regards them as a utopia, is no different from a clumsy utopia that does not have a very long history.
Therefore, people who escape from the barred large complex constantly search for ‘~Ridan-gil’, hoping for a chance encounter. The more each side raises the bar, the more trust disappears. This is why the walls need to be lowered and a space where people can naturally face each other is needed. Now, 30 years later, Ilsan New Town continues to attract people while maintaining low population density and wide, green parks as planned. Bamridan-gil, Bamgasi Village, located in the center, and Wit&Culture, which is located here, are always crowded with people looking forward to accidental discoveries in daily life and people who have established roots there.
In a community that closes its doors to each other, heartwarming stories quickly cool off. Unfortunately, only harmful or provocative news spreads quickly and without notice. It is a time when wit, which can soften the way we look at each other, is even more precious. Choi Dae-pyo, who spent his childhood in Ilsan, jokes, “If I succeed here, I will be able to go to Seoul.”
However, the sight of him memorizing the name of a walking dog, carefully placing a record on the turntable while observing the expressions of customers, and the unfamiliar sight of Bamgasi Village, where residential and commercial spaces come together to create a colorful landscape, and the joy of accidental discovery. Looking at the expressions on the faces of those heading towards the alley, his words about leaving this place soon become witty. The humor that fills the space and the culture it creates will take root in Bamgasi Village for a long time. Just as the roots from an old cafe often become the strength that sustains the area. And just as the root becomes a deep trust that binds each other.
