Open as a conceptual foundation for development
TRENDING — 12.12.2017
Clients come to us for our critical view on their concepts, projects and work. This view has been shaped by experience spanning years of work on different disciplines. We’re at a point that we’re starting to see a pattern in consumer and client needs. The need for extreme transparency, great service, quality, honesty and a welcoming atmosphere. For us the answer has always been in a analytical and conceptual working method. We’re interested in the WHY behind these needs.
Food and service has suffered in our contemporary life, kitchens are hidden away from plain sight, staff is there to make an extra buck alongside their busy studies and food has become oversimplified and trend focused. This results in a need for clarity and honesty.
This need should be answered with a single broad stroke: open it all up. Remove walls, divisions and hierarchies in spaces.
Take our HNK reception, food and coffee bar, a bar which has no front or back, the consumer can see all sides. Open also meant combining all services which where previously separated into one volume. This merging of services in combination with an open bar, placed in the middle of the space, created a generous space, transparent and welcoming to everyone walking in.
Our project for Amvest took a different view on ‘open’. Cruquius Local is a to be opened restaurant in Amsterdam. The building is made almost entirely of glass and is housed directly under the Amvest head office in a residential area built by Amvest. It serves as a space for residents and Amvest staff to hang out and eat in. We envisioned this restaurant like a kitchen with an open cooking island. ‘Hanging out in the kitchen’ is something we wanted to achieve. We made a completely open kitchen, surrounded by seats looking into the kitchen.
The same thinking we also applied to Juniper, where an open kitchen serves super fresh food to staff daily. The kitchen creates the main components for dishes a la minute, think of a great meat, fish or grilled vegetables. The consumer is then invited to finish the dish with countless of salad and side dish options, allowing for endless variation. An open ended food concept.
Also open by enbiun:
