At some point, your own kitchen and apartment will be too small: many food start-ups lack a place where they can develop and try out ideas, exchange ideas with colleagues and entertain guests. This is why Christin Siegemund developed the idea of the "foodlab", a creative center with a coworking area specially tailored to the needs of culinary start-ups, kitchen spaces for testing, creating and producing innovations, a studio for shootings and events to stage the whole thing, as well as a café and a pop-up area where a new restaurant concept invites guests every four weeks - and can be visited by all connoisseurs.

Their search for a suitable location for this vision began in 2018. The architects from Heyroth & Kürbitz accompanied them on viewings of rental spaces and were able to check whether the desired spatial program could be implemented in the respective premises. With a bit of luck, they quickly found the perfect location for the Foodlab. The striking white Watermark high-rise building is located in HafenCity not far from HafenCity University at the tip of Buenos Aires Quay. Here you can stroll along the edge of the harbor, linger on the seating steps and let the wind blow around your ears. The spatial ensemble of stairs, square and promenade continues inside the building in an impressively high space that forms the heart of the Foodlab. From the restaurant, café and co-working space, you can enjoy the breathtaking harbor view in any weather.

Café, restaurant, coworking, kitchen, photo studio: an unusual number of different spaces can be found under the roof of the Foodlab. But they all have one thing in common: The connection to the high glass hall where the food professionals and their guests meet. The restaurant is located on the promenade level and the café on the upper level. The rooms are designed to be what they are: A workshop where food is conceived, tasted, discussed and enjoyed. This is why the architects have left the space raw and unclad. The built-in partitions are as transparent as possible, the fixtures are elegant but simple. The colorful life comes with the users and guests. In order to convey the lively radiance of the Foodlab to the outside world and make it unmistakable, 1,000 felt objects were suspended from the ceiling of the high hall, reminiscent of floating napkins or sails in the wind. They are landmarks, enchant the room and also improve the room acoustics. The Foodlab team folded and hung the felt objects themselves in a well-organized and cheerful joint effort.

www.heyroth-kuerbitz.de
www.foodlab.hamburg

Photos:

Vivi D'Angelo
www.vividangelo.com

Steffen Borowski

(Published in CUBE Hamburg 02|21)