Many Korean people frequently visit the café after their meals. People go to cafés because there is a conviction that the café will provide delicious drinks and a pleasant atmosphere with clean toilets and music. By the way, don’t you think there are too many cafes? Many cafes are packed together all right next to each other. We need to focus on something that we are missing from this trend for cafés. Why are people so crazy about cafés?

 

South Korea’s café culture is very different with other countries. In other countries, cafés mainly offer brunch rather than providing beverages or snacks. The Korean café is also considered as a place that satisfies customers with a lot of activities so, there are various activities available while enjoying coffee in cafés. The reason why people often visit cafés can be explained as ‘Coffee House Effect’. It says that the cafe is located on the border between private and public spaces, allowing customers to control spaces with their free will, which makes them happier to work in cafés. Cafés have two clear characteristics. One characteristic is a public space role, and the other is the characteristic of a private space where customers can block loud noises with their earphones. Kim Young-ha, a novelist in the TV program “Al-Ssel-Sin-Jab” said that most apartments have lost the function of traditional houses, making it difficult for neighbors to communicate with each other. What he pointed out was that this situation has led the urban population to visit cafés where they can gather and interact without much strain. Furthermore, it was interpreted that cafés have become the symbol the ‘Short-term rental business’ in modern cities. The reason is that the surge in cafes is very closely related to the city’s housing problem. Attention to the café’s advantages in allowing the city’s population a place to spend their free time, which has become difficult to secure private space due to the high land prices, has contributed to the success of the café. The situation of having to spend money continuously in cafés will help revitalize the economy, but at the same time, it also means a failure of urban housing policy. The failure to secure spaces for the urban population to settle in the city means a lack of public infrastructure and it is difficult to ensure the basic life quality that the urban population should enjoy. Therefore, we are suggesting you consider the space in which you live and spend time through thinking about people who are forced to get to cafe.

 

Higher housing prices have resulted in the situation that people don’t have enough area for leisure. Therefore, the café has become a place to escape from their stuffy homes and a place to handle part of the day, resulting in cafes lighting up late night. Cafés are fee-based places and not everyone is free to use, meaning they do not allow the poor to enjoy those. Therefore, space for the urban population to enjoy leisure other than café should be expanded, and improvements in urban policy should be made to ensure equal space for all without exclusion. You can enjoy the cafe enough. But you also need to consider what it really means to be in the space where you are standing.