
JUJURWORK Brings Korean Street Culture to a Kuantan Rooftop in Malaysia
Words by Yatzer
Location
Kuantan, Malaysia
JUJURWORK Brings Korean Street Culture to a Kuantan Rooftop in Malaysia
Words by Yatzer
Kuantan, Malaysia
Kuantan, Malaysia
Location
Set atop a 1970s commercial building in Kuantan, Jibungae KBBQ turns an underused concrete roof into a vivid new dining destination overlooking the Malaysian city and the Kuantan River. Designed by architectural design studio JUJURWORK for the premium halal Korean barbecue brand, the 450-square-metre project brings together adaptive reuse, urban activation and a highly graphic hospitality identity. Rather than transplanting a literal image of Seoul, the studio filters Korean urban culture through the brand’s high-contrast palette of orange, red and black, creating a vibrant, layered environment that plays off the panoramic city views it commands.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).
The project forms part of a broader revival of the Hock Bee Bros Building, a long-standing fixture on Jalan Besar, Kuantan’s main street. Built in the 1970s, the structure is notable for its 12-metre-wide modernist facade and for the way its history reflects the town’s multicultural character. JUJURWORK had already worked within the building on Ms. Elliot, the café-restaurant occupying the ground floor; Jibungae extends the building’s revitalisation upwards.
The restaurant’s elevated position is central to the experience. Beyond the surrounding roofs, diners look towards the Kuantan River and its mangrove edge, with landmarks such as the giant blue-domed state mosque, spearhead tower and bridge introducing very different layers of Kuantan’s skyline. Against this backdrop, the restaurant’s saturated colours and illuminated signage establish a deliberate contrast. Playful and unmistakably contemporary, the intervention is nevertheless carefully inserted within the existing fabric rather than competing with it, allowing old and new to remain legible at once.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).
JUJURWORK’s design draws on three recurring images of Korean urban life. The first is the pojangmacha, the tarp-wrapped street stall or pop-up tent bar associated with late-night eating and drinking, translated here into loose seating arrangements and an informal social atmosphere. The second is the hanok, traditional Korean architecture, whose characteristic upturned roofline is abstracted into an open orange pavilion at the centre of the rooftop. Rather than becoming a themed replica, the silhouette is reduced to a crisp graphic gesture, its skeletal canopy framing the sky and casting patterned shadows across the deck.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).
The third reference is the visual density of Seoul itself: layered signs, transit cues, storefront graphics and the charged atmosphere of commercial alleyways. A stylised skyline screen wraps one edge of the terrace, combining block-like façades, Korean lettering and glowing lightboxes in pink, red, orange and black. The composition reads almost like a stage set, but its purpose is spatial as much as decorative, giving the rooftop a sense of enclosure while reinforcing Jibungae’s brand language. Custom lantern-like lights, metal tables and colour-blocked benches extend the same vocabulary across the dining area.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).
One floor below, the interior dining area continues the conceit of eating outdoors in the city. A striped, tented fabric installation ripples across the ceiling, threaded with festoon lights, while raw, unpainted cement walls and metallic café-style furniture give the room the makeshift character of a street-side venue. Suspended orange tarps with translucent cut-outs loosely divide the space without making it feel enclosed. Branded bib banners and brightly coloured artworks depicting nocturnal city scenes add another layer of visual noise, turning the sheltered level into an atmospheric counterpart to the rooftop above.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

