Midship in Korea
Silas Grant April 2019
Midship is our larger capacity roll-top backpack that also doubles as a tote. Made in England with waxed canvas and veg tanned leather. Fully lined with cotton drill and our hand printed crank lining.
I took my Midship as my go to bag whilst travelling with the family in South Korea, and tried to make the most of the countless photo opportunities.
I carried Midship as hand luggage, the front sleeve pockets proved handy for smuggling newspapers out of Airline Lounges.
My kids are 2 and 5 years old, so on the days exploring Seoul the contents were pretty varied: emergency nappies, snacks, water and various spare clothes amongst other things, and again the deep sleeve pockets were great for quick access stuff. We stayed at various Air bnb houses and apartments, and cooked a lot for the kids, so it had a few very full loads from the markets and shops volumetrically it can carry a lot, and weight wise there were the liquid essentials, beer and water, so I think we hit over 20KG sometimes.
In summary, Midship was a good size, good to vary between tote and backpack depending on the use. A sharp looking, all round work horse.
Anthracite Coffee, Jeju Island.
A fantastic, serene space with amazing coffee, I think it is an old fish processing factory or similar transformed into a cafe space that feels something between a greenhouse and a warehouse.
Traditional Hanok house, Bukchan Village, Seoul.
Korean carpentry is stunning, I believe this house was rebuilt in the 60's. Architecturally the connection between the interior and the exterior space is great, you have quite a serene inner courtyard and yet you are in quite a built up area in central Seoul. Slightly nerve wracking with the kids and lots a of paper screen sliding doors and the immaculate courtyard but the futon mountain kept them occupied.
DDP Building, Seoul.
A gargantuan Zaha Hadid masterpiece, slightly overwhelming but visually stunning, I chose to just take some pictures in an empty corridor, this corridor coils around the inside of the building, it felt like a huge crowd should be walking around the corner at any moment.
Seun Commercial Centre, Seoul.
This are is squeezed in between palaces and shopping malls next to redeveloped Canal, as a designer it is fascinating, countless small shops specialising in making or selling very specific hardware, electronics, engineering components, pharmaceutical glassware, metal workers... the list goes on. A lot of the items have a very unique Korean aesthetic.
House, near the Flea Market, Seoul.
As far as I can tell this is some ones home, with a fantastically eccentric facade on a relatively suburban house. Thats some serious army surplus collecting.
