Spaces that chase trends fail.
Only spaces that create trends will survive.
Will it disappear or will it survive?

* Appeared on Channel A's [The Rich Man], SBS's [Hands-On Hot Place! Neighborhood Cool House], and MBC's [Let's Live in an Empty House 3] *
* The 'Hand of Midas' that revives even dead businesses, Korea's best 'hot place maker' *
* 30 billion won in annual sales? 50 brands: Success strategies revealed by the heroes of the myth *

This is truly the era of 'hot places'.
On holidays, people flock to the 'hot spots'.
I don't mind waiting for hours.
The fact that 'many people go there' spreads through word of mouth, bringing in more people.
If it becomes a hot place, it will succeed, and if it doesn't become a hot place, it will disappear.
With online shopping dominating the distribution market and trends changing daily, stores that offer "good value for money and reasonable prices" can no longer survive.
So how does one become a "hot spot"? What are the rules for where people gather? Yoo Jeong-su, the spatial strategist who transformed Ikseon-dong, a run-down downtown area, into a premier commercial district and known as the "Midas Touch" for his success in every venture, answers that hot stores have a few distinct characteristics in common.
And this is explained from the perspective of ‘evolution of space’.
The six core strategies for space planning and branding presented in this book guide you to understand and apply the clear direction and flow of future commercial spaces, rather than chasing the tail of fleeting trends.
Through this, we can create spaces that will continue to survive and become successful hot spots even in times of fierce competition and crisis.

'Glow Seoul' is a company that focuses on the future of space, creating spaces, creating solutions, and planning brands.
As the CEO of that company, I have seen many offline spaces succeed and fail.
As someone who has thankfully made many of these spaces into places of choice, I would like to talk about which spaces have survived so far, which ones will survive in the future, and what these surviving spaces have in common.

--- p.5 From the “Introductory Note”

If a restaurant competes solely on the quality of its service and price competitiveness, rather than providing other elements that will attract people to its space, such as selling cost-effective menus to attract customers, the chances of such a store succeeding are extremely slim.
To begin with, today is not a world where people seek out certain products or services just because they are cheap.
To get people to go that far, you need something that goes beyond cost-effectiveness.

--- p.31 From “Chapter 1_The 6 to 4 Law”

Where should idle space be placed in an offline commercial space? If idle space exists primarily to attract customers—to gather them and capture their attention—then it's best to place it in the center of the space, where everyone who enters can see it.
If you work hard to split up your sales space to secure idle space, but end up putting it in a corner where customers can't easily reach it, it will be difficult to achieve the intended effect.
The reason such failures often occur is usually due to the desire to place more stores in places where customers can easily see them.
But as I've emphasized before, increased sales fundamentally come when more people come into a space.
If the key is to get people to come to the store, then it is a misreading of the order of things to think that placing a sales-oriented store in a place where there should be idle space to attract people will bring more people to that store.

--- p.35-36 From “Chapter 1_The 6 to 4 Law”

If every single element of a space seems like a main character, then it becomes a space where there are actually no main characters.
Aesthetically, it is also an important choice to decide which element of a space to focus on and highlight.
Therefore, rather than the properties of the exposed concrete itself being important, what is important is how other things in the space stand out functionally and aesthetically against the background of the exposed concrete.
And this isn't limited to exposed concrete interiors.

--- p.62 From “Chapter 2_The Law of Selection and Concentration”

In commercial spaces, the presence of a central wonder goes beyond mere appearance and serves a practical purpose for those who actually use the space.
Because people who stop by that space only stay there for a short time.
Even from the user's perspective, there is no obligation to come to a specific commercial space.
Residential and office spaces are places where people live and work, so whether they like it or not, they have to stay there for a long time, but commercial spaces are places where people come to play and have fun, and if they don't like it, they can leave at any time or not come back, and even if they like it, their stay there is only for a short time.
That's why we need specific devices that can captivate the people who come there for that short time.

--- p.92-93 From “Chapter 2_The Law of Selection and Concentration”

In general, any object tends to look hip the further it is from the wall.
On the contrary, the moment you stick it on the wall, it becomes boring and obvious, and the space becomes less interesting.
In space planning, the inertia of trying to stick something on the wall is a bad habit that makes the space unattractive.
To create a special space that appeals to as many people as possible, and to make the wonders you've worked so hard to create function within that space, the most basic and important first step is to remove everything from the walls, and it's a way to use a three-dimensional space in a three-dimensional way.
--- p.110-111 From “Chapter 3_The Law of Dimensional Evolution”

When people perceive a space as large, what spatial elements contribute to that sense of spaciousness? While a large horizontal surface area is certainly a factor, it doesn't necessarily elicit a sense of "bigness"; it reinforces the sense of "spaciousness."
To feel big, the volume, not the area, must be big, and to feel big, the height of the space, that is, the height of the building's floors, must be high.
In other words, for the view inside the building to be open, not only the horizontal area must be large, but the vertical height must also be open.
This ceiling height is one of the important factors that makes a space feel larger.

--- p.153 From “Chapter 4_Law of Maximum Volume”

When Glow Seoul brings nature into commercial spaces, it often does so not by placing flower pots on concrete floors or creating flower beds with trees, but by actually digging up the floor inside the building and planting plants there.
This is because the boundary between the planted area and the artificial concrete space is erased, creating a natural atmosphere.
In reality, trees planted in holes dug in buildings and filled with soil, and trees planted in flower beds and pots, bring about vastly different spatial experiences.
--- p.214 From “Chapter 5_The Law of Erasing Boundaries”

In commercial spaces where users spend short periods of time and thus have a high threshold for stimulation, the space should be planned to a level that feels somewhat excessive.
Therefore, when planning a space, if you have decided on a concept, it is necessary to push it as far as possible.
Whether the concept of the space is maximal or minimal, if you are going to fill the space maximally, it must be extremely maximal, and if you are going to go minimal, it must be extremely minimal.
And, as mentioned earlier, the standard should be set from the perspective of the user, not the space planner or producer.

--- p.250 From “Chapter 6_The Law of Implementing a Worldview”