BLURKER Wraps a Seoul Curtain Showroom in Circles, Cushions, and Glass Block

Selling curtains is not inherently glamorous. The product is soft, foldable, and usually displayed on racks in big-box stores where the lighting does no one any favors. BLURKER clearly started from the opposite assumption when they designed the Self Maker Showroom in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Designed by Junho Kim with construction supervision by Daesung Kim, the project treats the showroom floor not as a warehouse but as a sequence of spatial moods, each calibrated to a different stage of the customer's decision-making process.

What makes this project worth studying is its discipline. Three circular zones, each with a different diameter and purpose, overlap on a compact plan. Office, lounge, and curtain display share a single volume under an exposed concrete ceiling, yet the architecture manages to give each zone its own atmosphere through just three material moves: glass block, cushion wall, and curtain. No drywall mazes, no gimmicky signage. The space is organized by the same fabric it sells.

Circulation as Curation

The entrance corridor is the showroom's thesis statement. Thin silk curtains hang on both sides of a narrow passage, functioning simultaneously as walls, doors to the offices and storage beyond, and a first sensory encounter with the product. You walk through the merchandise before you even reach a display. The backlit pleated panels glow against the raw concrete ceiling beams overhead, setting up an immediate tension between industrial structure and domestic softness.

A curved cushion wall appears partway through the sequence, positioned with a deliberate gap that nudges visitors toward the curtain display zone. It is a subtle piece of crowd choreography. Rather than posting directional arrows, BLURKER lets geometry do the wayfinding, curving the padded surface so that your body follows the radius naturally. The corridor never feels like a hallway; it feels like an unfolding.

Glass Block as Soft Divider

Glass block walls mark the entry and exit points of the office zone, and they earn their place. In a space already saturated with fabric, the translucency of glass block introduces a harder, cooler register without killing the intimacy. Light passes through but detail does not, which means the back-of-house functions remain visually present without being visually distracting. The curved geometry of these walls echoes the circular floor plan, keeping the material language consistent even when the material itself changes.

Behind the glass block partition, workstations sit against textured wall panels, borrowing daylight from the corridor side. It is a pragmatic choice. Staff can monitor foot traffic through the diffused glow of the blocks while remaining in a quieter zone. The framed doorways that punctuate these walls are kept simple, almost industrial, reinforcing the contrast with the soft curtain screens on the opposite side.

The Lounge as Product Theater

Positioned at the end of the entrance circulation line, the lounge is where the showroom slows down. A white elliptical table sits on dark carpet, surrounded by flowing curtain partitions and a continuous illuminated perimeter band that traces the ceiling edge. The geometry pushes attention inward, toward the table and toward conversation. It reads less like a retail break room and more like a stage set where product consultation becomes a proper event.

The curving service counter reinforces this reading. Potted greenery and black chairs ground the space in something almost domestic, while the circular white curtain backdrop behind the counter keeps the brand's core material perpetually in view. Customers sit within the product rather than looking at it from a distance. That collapse of display and inhabitation is the smartest decision in the project.

Curtain Rails as Architecture

Two circular ceiling structures of different diameters serve double duty as both lighting rings and curtain rails. They are the structural conceit that holds the entire plan together. Curtains slide along these tracks to form fitting enclosures, display vignettes, or open gathering areas depending on the moment. Black frames anchor floor-to-ceiling curtain panels in neutral tones, giving the fabric enough rigidity to read as architecture rather than decoration.

The reception area shows this system at its most theatrical: a curved white curtain screen wraps behind a circular table with columns, while dark product shelving lines the opposite wall. Products overlap intentionally, encouraging customers to pull, drape, and compare fabrics side by side. The illuminated display alcoves with their purple accents add color strategically, breaking the prevailing white and black palette just enough to signal where the premium offerings live.

The Cushion Wall as Brand Identity

BLURKER positions the cushion wall as more than a spatial divider. It is an "iconic art wall" that represents the brand's relationship with fabric, translating textile texture and volume into an architectural surface. The padded panels bulge gently outward, creating a topography that catches raking light and invites touch. In a showroom where the entire point is to make customers comfortable handling soft goods, a wall that rewards physical contact is a sharp piece of branding.

Paired with the glass table and purple stools in the adjacent display area, the cushion wall reads as a gradient from hard to soft. Glass block, glass furniture, and then padded wall: the sequence mirrors the customer journey from street to consultation, each step introducing more tactility. The illuminated black shelving behind this zone provides the contrast needed to make fabric samples pop.

Plans and Drawings

The floor plan reveals the organizational logic that the photographs only hint at. Three overlapping circles define the primary zones, with the lounge occupying the largest arc at the plan's far end. Curved walls never run parallel to one another, which means the residual spaces between them become corridors of varying width. The result is a plan that reads as organic but is actually highly controlled, with every gap calibrated to guide movement toward a specific program area.

Why This Project Matters

Retail design too often defaults to one of two modes: the stark white gallery box or the overproduced lifestyle set. The Self Maker Showroom avoids both by using the product itself as a primary building material. Curtains are not just displayed; they form walls, doors, and spatial enclosures. That decision collapses the boundary between merchandise and architecture and, in doing so, gives the customer a reason to care about the space rather than simply tolerate it.

BLURKER's design also demonstrates that material restraint does not mean spatial monotony. With only three materials doing the heavy lifting, the showroom achieves variety through geometry alone. The overlapping circles, the shifting corridor widths, and the alternation between translucent and opaque surfaces create a sequence of distinct moments within a very small footprint. For any designer working on a brand experience where the product is tactile and the budget is finite, this is a project worth pulling apart.

Self Maker Showroom, designed by BLURKER (Design: Junho Kim; Construction Supervision: Daesung Kim). Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Photography by rayliter.

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