Menu and Norm Architects full Copenhagen resort that doubles as a showroom
Design model Menu has teamed up with structure studio Norm Architects on The Audo, a resort in Copenhagen the place cosy, earth-toned visitor suites double up as present areas for brand spanking new furnishings and homeware.
The Audo encompasses Menu’s headquarters, together with 10 visitor suites which can be all dressed with the model’s vary of furnishings, lighting and residential equipment.
The Danish model mentioned the constructing highlights the “multidisciplinary, unifying nature of design”.
“We needed Menu to take a brand new method to working a design enterprise via openness, knowledge-sharing and collaboration,” defined Joachim Hansen, director of Menu.
“By exhibiting our assortment in several contexts inside hospitality we are going to make the gathering change into extra alive,” he advised Dezeen.
The resort occupies a 1918 constructing in Nordhavn – an industrial a part of Copenhagen that is residence to town’s port and cruise docks, however only a quick distance from the fashionable neighbourhood of Østerbro, which is populated by cafes and outlets.
Its identify is an acronym of the Latin phrase ab uno disce omnes – which interprets as “from one, be taught all” – and a nod to the resort’s multifunctional areas.
To make sure the resort’s inner areas had been on-brand, Menu approached long-standing collaborator Norm Architects. The 2 studios beforehand labored collectively on Menu’s extra typical Copenhagen showroom, the country interiors of restaurant Höst and a spread of minimalist chairs.
“On the flip of the previous century we had been popping out of a interval of lovely neo-classicist structure in Copenhagen, coming into the early daybreak of modernism,” mentioned Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen, co-founder of Norm Architects.
“The idea of The Audo is a hybrid, so was the unique constructing. On the skin it has historic references, however on the within the constructing is a rational, industrial concrete construction that allowed us to rework it somewhat freely.”
Practically the entire pre-existing partition partitions have been knocked via to kind an enormous, open-plan floor stage with concrete tile flooring and perforated black steel ceilings. Dotted all through are contrastingly tactile white boucle sofas, veiny marble espresso tables and chocolate-coloured velvet armchairs.
Muuto expands Copenhagen places of work with new pastel-coloured workspaces
Adjacently lies the resort retailer, which is able to supply a curated number of merchandise from different premium design manufacturers. Right here there’s additionally a residing room-style space dressed with an olive-green nook couch, leafy print ottomans and certainly one of Menu’s Knitting Chairs, the place company can sit and chill out all through the day.
At this stage can be a small cafe and restaurant.
An “amphitheatrical” staircase results in the Menu places of work and the communal workspace, that are closed off by black-framed panels of glazing. Visitors can then take a raise as much as their rooms, that are tucked away within the constructing’s former attic beneath the unique timber ceiling beams.
Designed to be richer in tone, the rooms characteristic terracotta plaster partitions and Dinesen oak floorboards, in addition to oat-coloured mattress throws and rugs.
“On the bottom ground, the home is symbolically clear within the sense that the supplies chosen for these areas are uncooked and industrial, reflecting the spirit of the location – genius loci,” added Bjerre-Poulsen.
“The additional you progress up in the home, the extra intimate and heat the number of supplies change into, the rooms invoke a way of calm and serenity.”
The Audo was unveiled to the general public throughout three Days of Design, which yearly takes place in Copenhagen to showcase the most effective of Danish design.
This occasion this 12 months additionally noticed Muuto reveal their new pastel-toned headquarters and Hay launch a brand new assortment of homeware inside an 18th-century palace.