한국국제교류재단

The lowercase “a” stands for alpha — the idea of bringing something exceptional to the standard without being excessive. True to the name, we aim to make furniture that belongs in a space rather than competing with it, pieces that settle into a room without overwhelming it. That’s why we chose solid wood as our primary material from the very beginning. Our brand slogan, “standard is not normal,” carries the same conviction. Standards aren’t simply what’s common. They demand that you hold on to your values.

Oak, cherry, and walnut form the foundation, with maple as an additional option. We have worked with wood for over a decade, but it still humbles us. When the source region of the wood changes, the processing method must change as well. We generally use American wood, but because the United States spans an enormous range of climates and growing conditions, the quality of the timber isn’t always consistent, making it a tricky material to handle. Even so, the texture speaks to the hand, and there’s an emotional warmth to it. That’s what we put in front of our customers. For finishing, we prefer an oil penetration method over surface coating. With lacquer, you never fully experience the texture of the wood.

It depends on the space and what it calls for. The Olive Young health and beauty store at Anguk Station is a good example. It sits in Bukchon, with Gyeongbok Palace and Changdeok Palace nearby, Insa-dong’s antique dealers directly across the street, and Bukchon Hanok Village climbing the hillside behind. Given the setting, the design brief was obvious: the renovation would take hanok — Korea’s traditional timber-frame houses — as its point of departure. We collaborated with furniture artist Kim Hyun-hee to render the ornamental metal mounts of antique Korean furniture as aluminum details, threading traditional references through a contemporary sensibility. To add a fresh feel, we also used walnut, which is rarely seen in traditional Korean furniture.

Late 2024 brought a project that cut close to the heart of Korean tradition. Chef Kim Dae-chun, who runs [the Michelin-starred restaurant] 7th Door in Seoul, arrived at the studio with a new venture: BIUM, a vegetarian fine dining restaurant rooted in temple food. The space needed to feel inseparable from the hanok interior, and the furniture had to carry that same character. We took Chair 02, one of our original designs, as the foundation and developed a new form from it. The back took its cue from the hanok window lattice, and the panel is filled with vertical lines, conveying a sense of restraint that is unmistakably Korean.

In STANDARD.’s early days, we had products that were returned due to issues we hadn’t anticipated. That changed everything. Now, before a design goes out, we use the sample ourselves over a set period — sitting with it, finding what might eventually fail — and keep refining it until those issues are gone. Chair 05 tells that story well. It uses a Western method of weaving paper cord, and underneath, L-shaped nails hold the cord in place. In Western furniture culture, a nail that works loose gets hammered back in. In Korea, the same thing tends to be perceived as a defect. To reinforce the structure, we replaced the individual nails with a single consolidated plate combining dozens of them. When design and function pull in different directions, we reach for function first and let the form follow.

STANDARD.a’s modular shelving and stools on display in the showroom. Precise joinery and an oil finish highlight the wood’s natural grain.

The measure is ultimately our sales volume. In the beginning, customers sought out Dining Table 02 and Dining Table 03. Now it’s the chairs. Chair 07 can be considered STANDARD.’s current signature piece. Word got out after two of the city’s most respected fine dining restaurants, MOSU Seoul and POOM SEOUL, acquired this chair for their spaces.

Chair 07 is more expressive than anything we had made before, bolder in form and deliberately so. After creating this chair, we asked ourselves where it belonged. The answer was: in restaurants. A long meal runs to around three hours, and over that time a diner needs to shift position and get comfortable. What that requires is a soft backrest and armrests that actually give you somewhere to place your arms. We designed the chair for comfort without sacrificing elegance, and when chefs of that caliber chose the chair, it was both a surprise and a confirmation that our instincts had hit the mark. Within the company everyone has their own preference, but Chair 06 is the one most of us keep coming back to.

Chair 07, STANDARD.a’s signature chair. Elegant organic curves combine expressive form with everyday comfort.
Courtesy of STANDARD.a

We connected with [architecture firm] MASS STUDIES while they searched for a woodworking team to fabricate the benches for the interior of Wonnam Temple. Until then, most of the spaces we had worked on had fairly consistent ceiling heights and areas, but Wonnam Temple was entirely different. The space is circular, and the ceiling is much higher than those we had encountered. Photographs and drawings only go so far. We visited the site more than ten times and only started working once the space stopped feeling unfamiliar. To express a sense of warmth in the furniture, we rounded every edge into a continuous curve — nothing angular, nothing abrupt.

STANDARD.a recreated the staircase handrail for the renovation of the French Embassy’s Kim Chung-up Pavilion. Without original drawings, the team relied entirely on archival photographs.
Courtesy of STANDARD.a

The interior had been stripped to the structural frame for a safety assessment, and what that revealed was sobering: The concrete and steel had corroded beyond repair. Restoration was off the table, which left a fundamental question: start from scratch with an entirely new design, or reconstruct the original form? Given that it was the work of Kim Chung-up (1922–1988), a master of modern Korean architecture, the decision was made to preserve whatever could be saved while adding subtle new touches where appropriate.

We were tasked with the handrails for the staircase leading to the second floor, a highly symbolic and important element. The form was extraordinarily demanding. No drawings existed. The only historical references were three faded photographs. We initially declined the offer. Then came word that if we walked away, the railing would be cast in metal — no other team could restore it in wood. That brought us back. Working from photographs alone was grueling, but whenever we pass the building on the elevated highway, I feel a great sense of pride.

The most difficult aspect is that the working-level staff and the decision-makers rarely overlap. Building a process that bridges that gap, or at least keeps communication clear across it, is where most of the real effort needs to be allocated. On the design side, we are fortunate: Working-level staff tend to trust our work and actively propose our involvement, which prevents a lot of friction. Even within the same industry, no two spaces read the same way, so we listen closely to the architects and designers shaping the overall vision. There is no fixed answer, but the deeper you go into a problem, the closer you are to an answer. We try to absorb as much of their thinking as possible, then turn to what might be missing — anything that might have functional shortcomings or elements unsuitable for production — and go from there.

Most brands that represent a country possess a history of at least thirty years. Heritage is not declared; it grows through consistency, one year at a time. STANDARD.is fifteen years in. Mass-produced panel furniture is convenient to manufacture and allows consumers to use it casually and discard it easily. In an age that runs on convenience, adhering to the painstaking process of crafting by hand is no simple task. Even so, we are committed to steadfastly building our legacy over time.

Working with architect Cho Min-suk of Mass Studies, STANDARD.a fabricated the interior benches for Wonnam Temple. Softly rounded edges complement the building’s soaring circular space.
Courtesy of STANDARD.a