Van Cleef & Arpels’ Seoul Maison

Jouin Manku

Short description

"A Maison Jardin"

After Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, the Jouin Manku studio has completed Van Cleef & Arpels’ maison in Seoul. For this new project, Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku were entrusted with the entire architectural conception of the building, the interior architecture and the design of every final detail. A complete project and a new opportunity to share a fascination for the world, as the studio celebrates its sixteenth year of collaboration with the exceptional French maison de haute joaillerie.

Van Cleef & Arpels is driven by savoir-faire and a demand for excellence, but also by culture and heritage, and continues to play an important role in the development of the decorative arts. Under the management of Nicolas Bos, we see a brand that is heavily involved in a range of cultural activities, from commissioning dance performances to sponsoring a school of jewellery arts. It is this commitment that has fuelled the Jouin Manku studio. These cultural alliances are interwoven throughout Van Cleef & Arpels’ commercial activity, ensuring the company’s status as a powerful purveyor of dreams.

This project seeks to offer Korea a Van Cleef & Arpels showcase, exposing its level of craftsmanship, its heritage and taste for the arts and culture, as well as expressing the links between the east and the west, embracing and celebrating Korean culture. No question of bringing in ideas of style, but rather of teasing out a sophisticated blend, inextricably combining commerce and culture, contemporary and craftsmanship.

Jouin Manku has put its vision of European and occidental architecture to the test by endeavouring to embrace Korean ideas, reflecting the country’s vast cultural wealth in the project. Advocating the spirit of opening up to the world in order to find our natural place in a new ecosystem.


“With the creation of this new Maison, we are celebrating ever stronger bonds with this country, known for a long tradition of craftsmanship that echoes the values espoused by Van Cleef & Arpels. Indeed, the boutique was designed to form a union between the French jewelry tradition and Korean cultural heritage, and to nurture this dialogue for years to come.”
Nicolas Bos- President and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels

“This project offered us the opportunity to imagine a whole new building, a structure that would establish Van Cleef & Arpels as a prominent feature in the Seoul landscape. Over five levels, we designed a dreamlike natural decor with spaces suited to hosting artistic functions – exhibitions and conferences – along an itinerary in which lively spaces alternate with intimate islands of tranquility.”

Sanjit Manku & Patrick Jouin - Studio Jouin Manku