An all-black aesthetic for the Parsons Xtreme Golf Building

This seven-storey building serves as the Seoul headquarters of the luxury golf brand Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG). The design challenge focused on two key aims: strengthening the brand’s identity while creating flexible and sustainable workspaces that promote ecological harmony and employee wellbeing.

The eighteen vertical brise-soleil fins on the façade are the result of meticulous microclimatic engineering, complemented by a system of six outdoor terraces. The goal was to create open-air workspaces for staff and visitors in response to post-pandemic requirements, while simultaneously revitalising the public spaces of the city of Seoul. These outdoor areas feature lush vegetation that helps mitigate heat and introduces fresh air into the large office spaces, creating a sustainable microclimate and acting as a social catalyst.

The façade and its vertical brise-soleil elements ensure ample natural light and optimal thermal conditions for energy efficiency, protecting the interior from solar gain by shielding the glazing from direct sunlight. Workspace flexibility was another major priority. By employing post-tensioned reinforced concrete, the architects achieved a column-free 15 x 17-metre floor plan. This allows the building to adapt its internal configuration to changing needs without requiring structural modifications.

The choice of an all-black palette for the façades reinforces the brand’s premium positioning. This intense colour is maintained over the various cladding materials, including porcelain stoneware and PVDF-coated aluminium. While uniform in colour, each material offers a unique level of light reflectance and surface texture.

The all-black theme continues throughout the interiors, where the Soap Stone collection from COEM was selected in Black for the floors and walls of the common areas. “The decision to install high-quality porcelain stoneware flooring in the interior spaces allowed us to achieve a solid and elegant stone effect that conveys the brand’s strength and culture throughout the workplace,” explains Jinkyu Lee, Co-CEO and Design Principal at Moritdol ACE.

Soapstone, also known as steatite, is a metamorphic rock quarried in Italy, the United States and Brazil. It comes in colours ranging from grey to green or black depending on its origin.

This natural material provided the inspiration for the eponymous collection from COEM, which offers a durable, functional surface with strong graphic depth and tonal variation across two finishes: natural and lapped. The colours remain faithful to the original material, while the texture features prominent veining that enhances its natural beauty. In this project, 75×150 cm slabs were specified in a 9 mm thickness.

Energy and water savings, reduced CO₂ emissions, improved indoor environmental quality and a commitment to sustainable sourcing are the core principles guiding COEM’s product development. Thanks to their technical and structural characteristics and high recycled material content, these porcelain stoneware collections make a tangible contribution to this sustainable journey.