Bringing Danishness to Japan’s Andersen Bakery
Kontrapunkt has helped one of Japans major bakery chains to build and design their new training facility in Japan. The task was to express Andersen Bakery’s Danishness in the design and architecture of its new training campus called the Andersen Geihoku 100 year farm. The complete design concept and architectural solution was created in collaboration between Kontrapunkt and the Danish landscape architects SLA. It included facilitating design aspects of the 87 acres big farm and training area – from buildings and interiors to landscape planning.
THE ANDERSEN PHILOSOPHY
The challenge was to express the Danish core of the Andersen brand universe in the design concept of the farm. The result was achieved by focusing on the special vibe of Danish architecture and creating a simple language of form that expresses Danish modernism both in the exterior and interior design.
Kontrapunkt’s design concept communicates the Andersen Group’s unique corporate culture with its focus on nature and the art of bread making through the interplay between architecture of the buildings and the landscape. The aim was that the master plan of compound and its buildings should underline and encourage Andersen Bakery’s fundamental employee values: friendship and the act of creating with respect for nature.
INTERCULTURAL MEETINGS: DANISH ARCHITECTURE IN JAPAN
With departure point in a distinct Japanese context Kontrapunkt employed a Danish angle in the architectural concept. Visual inspiration was drawn from the plotting of traditional Danish village and the way its buildings harmoniously fits into the landscape.
“The aim was to emphasise the existing Danish connotations at the heart of the Andersen brand while paying careful attention to the uniqueness of the landscape and the natural environment,”
explains Kontrapunkt’s Strategy Consultant Kooichi L. Sakihama who describes the collaboration with Andersen as one of the most rewarding and interesting design assignments solved by Kontrapunkt.
The Andersen Bakery Group: A Japanese bakery chain with over 5000 employees and activities comprising from bread retail, cafés and chocolate shops. Andersen Bakery Group was founded 1948 in Hiroshima by Shunsuke Takaki who was inspired by Danish bread making tradition when he tasted Danish pastry on a trip to Denmark in the fifties. The name is naturally taken after the storyteller Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). And the company’s strong tie with Denmark and Danish culture remains: The president of this group, Seiichi Takaki is both 2005 Hans Christian Andersen ambassador and Royal Danish Honorary Consul in Hiroshima
Contact:
Bo Linnemann, principal
Tel +45 33 93 18 83 /
or
Lars Larson, senior project manager
Tel + 45 33 93 18 83 /
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