An Intimate Look at Denmark’s New Noma Restaurant Village

The award-winning restaurant noma worked with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group to create its new home as a restaurant village just outside of Copenhagen’s city center. Situated between two lakes and within the community of Christiania in Denmark, the new noma is built on the site of a protected ex-military warehouse once used to store mines for the Royal Danish Navy. Imagined as an intimate culinary garden village, guests are welcomed to experience a new menu and philosophy that will redefine noma for years to come.

Central to the design was the idea of dissolving the restaurant’s individual functions and organizing them into a collection of separate yet connected buildings. A total of 11 spaces, each tailored to its specific needs, are densely clustered around the restaurant’s heart—the kitchen—putting the chefs at the head of it all.

Every part of the restaurant experience – the arrival, the lounge, the barbecue, the wine selection and the private company—are all clustered around the chefs. From their central position, they have a perfect overview to every corner of the restaurant while allowing every single guest to follow what would traditionally happen behind-the-scenes.

A large skylight and an expansive set of windows that slide to reveal the outdoor permagarden allow guests to truly sense all of the seasons and the restaurant’s natural surrounds. Outside, the restaurant’s three greenhouses are used as a garden, test kitchen and bakery.

The noma kitchen is designed like a panopticon with an oversized hood hovering over the chefs. From here, the chefs can oversee the entire kitchen and guest areas, including the dining room and adjacent private dining room. These spaces are made of stacked timber planks that resemble neatly piled wood at a lumber yard.

The historic 100-meterlong, single-story warehouse completes the circle of buildings surrounding the kitchen. BIG preserved the raw shell of the warehouse’s concrete and inserted a massive wooden shelf for storage and display. All of the back-of-house functions are located here, including the prep kitchen, fermentation labs, fish tanks, terrarium, ant farm and break-out areas for staff.

Each “building within the building” is connected by glass-covered paths for chefs and guests to follow the changes in weather, daylight and seasons—making the natural environment an integral part of the culinary experience. Guests have the opportunity to walk through each of the surrounding buildings and to experience a variety of Nordic materials and building techniques: the barbecue is a giant walk-in hut, and the lounge looks and feels like a giant, cozy fireplace made entirely of brick inside and out.

Facts
Size: 1,290 square meters
Location: Refshalevej, Copenhagen, Denmark
Collaborators: BIG Ideas, BIG Engineering, NT Consult, Studio David Thulstrup, Thing&Brandt Landskab, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Photos courtesy of Rasmus Hjortshoj.