The Hock Bee Bros Building at dusk, its 1970s frontage anchoring the street while the illuminated rooftop glows above. Beyond, the blue-domed state mosque and its slender minarets rise against the hills, situating Jibungae's saturated Korean barbecue terrace firmly within Kuantan's layered civic and multicultural fabric.

JUJURWORK Brings Korean Street Culture to a Kuantan Rooftop in Malaysia

Words by Yatzer

Kuantan, Malaysia

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.

Seen from above, JUJURWORK's rooftop scheme reveals its full composition: the crisp orange hanok canopy, a stylised skyline screen of pink, black and lettered lightboxes, and colour-blocked stainless-steel barbecue tables. Kuantan's old shophouse roofs and Jalan Besar's multicultural fabric press in on every side.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Jibungae KBBQ's rooftop terrace surveys the Kuantan River and its mangrove edge, the skeletal orange hanok pavilion glowing against blue water. Rusted tin roofs, a weathered concrete parapet and a distant hilltop hospital frame the intervention, its saturated colour set sharply against the tropical daylight palette.

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.

Powder-coated chairs and stainless barbecue tables in the foreground give way to the terrace's signage wall, where illuminated Korean lightboxes and perforated lanterns stack into a stylised skyline. A real high-rise rises beyond, collapsing the distance between the constructed Seoul backdrop and Kuantan's actual skyline.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Daylight view of the rooftop terrace, where the skeletal orange hanok canopy meets a wall of mock shopfront signage in pink, red and grey, lettered in Korean. Stainless-steel barbecue tables and powder-coated chairs in orange and red sit beneath a clear sky, the scenography reading as a compressed Seoul streetscape.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Late-afternoon view along the hanok canopy, its curved orange rafters and eave tiles abstracted into crisp metalwork. A hanging perforated lantern, translucent skyline screen and rows of stainless grill tables extend the scenography, the mock high-rise signage massing behind in orange, pink and grey.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Low sun rakes across the rooftop terrace, backlighting the hanok canopy's scalloped eave and its translucent polycarbonate screen, where a cut-out skyline and Korean lettering sit against the glare. Stainless barbecue tables and powder-coated benches in orange gather beneath, a distant minaret just visible past the weathered parapet.

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.

A tight study of the central pavilion's corner, its upturned eaves and ribbed polycarbonate panels catching low sun. A cut-out skyline motif and Korean lettering sit across the translucent screen, while the pig-and-hanok logo appears on an adjacent panel, the whole bathed in warm amber light.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

A frontal, symmetrical view into the pavilion at sunset, the sun flaring through the scalloped canopy above a wall-length skyline screen. Behind the translucent panel, Kuantan's real rooftops blur into the constructed Seoul silhouette, while a central grill table and powder-coated chairs anchor the composition in warm, even light.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

At dusk, the illuminated rooftop of Jibungae KBBQ reads as a warm ember within Kuantan's low-rise centre, the tapered form of Menara 188 tower rising against an amber sky. The intervention sits amid weathered roofs and the Kuantan River, an elevated vantage point over the city's mixed eras.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Dusk on the rooftop terrace, box lanterns lettered in Korean suspended from slender arms against a fading sky. The hanok pavilion glows amber behind them, its polycarbonate wall carrying a cut-out skyline, while grill-fitted steel tables and orange bench seating stretch across the concrete deck.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

A composition of suspended lanterns catching the last blue light, their Korean characters glowing against dusk. Below, a ribbed-polycarbonat screen beside a bench, the table's mirrored surface pooling the warm interior light of the pavilion behind.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Illuminated box lanterns lettered in Korean float on slender arms against a deep-blue sky, with Menara 188 tower rising between them. A ribbed-polycarbonate balustrade carrying the Jibungae mark encloses the stainless grill tables, the whole terrace poised between the constructed streetscape and the city beyond.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Beneath the LED-edged rafters, the terrace opens onto its full mock-streetscape wall, panels in yellow, pink, crimson and grey lettered as fictional Seoul shopfronts. Grill-fitted steel tables and powder-coated chairs fill the deep-blue evening, back-lit signage lending the scene the charge of a night market.

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.

An angled view down the rootop terrace, the illuminated rafters drawing the eye toward the layered facade of faux high-rises and glowing signboards. Red and orange chairs cluster around steel grill tables on bare concrete, the constructed skyline pressing up against a clear cobalt sky.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

An aerial view of the Hock Bee Bros Building rooftop at dusk, where the glowing orange hanok frame, red-panelled booths and a lantern-lit lower terrace form a layered nocturnal scene. Beyond, the Kuantan River, its bridge and mangrove line dissolve into deepening twilight, the pig-motif logo wall catching the last warm light.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

The sheltered lower level, where rows of white branded bib banners hang above stainless tables and powder-coated chairs. A wall of illustrated panels evokes a Seoul subway platform, complete with line numbers and signage, extending the street-culture conceit indoors against raw concrete and speckled terrazzo.

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.

Under a black-and-cream striped awning strung with festoon bulbs, the interior dining room channels a night market. Red chairs and stainless tables cluster on speckled tiled flooring, a painted alley scene and the grey Jibungae service counter beyond, orange sheeting and back-lit panels layering the makeshift, after-dark atmosphere.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

A vertical study of the striped awning ceiling, its wavy edge and looping festoon lights framing the brand's illuminated logo on cracked concrete. Red chairs and stainless tables sit below, with louvred windows and a branded red service unit adding to the improvised street-stall character.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Under the black-and-cream striped awning, a gallery-like space features vivid painted scenes of Seoul nightlife, a market spread and a signposted surau. Festoon bulbs criss-cross the speckled terrazzo, twin white benches facing the artworks, the raw concrete shell holding the makeshift, after-dark warmth of a street market.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

The structural-glass floor mirrors the glowing hanok pavilion beyond, its skyline screen and Korean slogans doubled in reflection. Framed by the emblem-marked concrete wall at left and a perforated kitchen shutter at right, the composition turns the rooftop into a stage set for a single-table Korean barbecue.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

  • A frontal view of the hanok pavilion at dusk, its scalloped eave rimmed with warm light above a translucent screen carrying a cut-out skyline and Korean slogans. Communal grill tables and powder-coated chairs sit beneath, the mock-shopfront signage glowing to the left against a graded evening sky.

    Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

  • Frontal, symmetrical framing at nightfall: three lanterns lettered in Korean hang above a ribbed balustrade carrying the Jibungae mark, the mock-shopfront wall glowing behind. Two grill tables flank the foreground, the red branded screen at right anchoring the composition in the brand's palette.

    Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

Twilight view across the structural-glass floor, which mirrors the lantern-lit terrace below. Beyond the red chairs and steel tables, the domes and minarets of the state mosque rise floodlit against the sky, while the Jibungae emblem sits bold on the weathered concrete wall at right.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

A vertical night composition frames the floodlit state mosque, its blue ribbed dome and slender minarets rising past a row of glowing Korean lanterns. Red chairs and grill-fitted steel tables sit below the emblem-marked balustrade, the constructed streetscape and the city's civic landmark held in a single view.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

The rooftop terrace radiates amber light at dusk, its illuminated skyline screen and hanok canopy anchoring the composition. Menara 188 tower punctuates the horizon while the Mega View Hotel and shophouse roofs surround the scheme, festoon-lit tables and red chairs arranged for open-air Korean barbecue above the sleeping street.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

A closer nocturnal view of the terrace, where glowing lightboxes evoke a compressed Seoul streetscape and the orange hanok canopy floats above stainless-steel grill tables. The pig-motif logo wall, hung lanterns and structural-glass floor over the mezzanine reveal how JUJURWORK layers brand and atmosphere across the concrete slab.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

The Hock Bee Bros Building at dusk, its 1970s frontage anchoring the street while the illuminated rooftop glows above. Beyond, the blue-domed state mosque and its slender minarets rise against the hills, situating Jibungae's saturated Korean barbecue terrace firmly within Kuantan's layered civic and multicultural fabric.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).

A near-vertical night view over the Hock Bee Bros rooftop, where illuminated tables trace a bright rectangle against dark tin roofs. The glowing skyline screen reads as a spine of light, while Jalan Besar's kerb markings, parked cars and passing traffic frame the intervention within Kuantan's grid.

Photography by Patrick Teow (Heartpatrick Photography).