One year on, the buildings and interiors are
complete, and the new Noma is welcoming
its first guests, who follow a cobblestone path
into an understated metal-clad entrance
pavilion. To better convey a sense of home,
there is no front desk, just a series of
wardrobes where guests can leave their coats.
And perhaps their shoes as well, seeing as
there’s a rugged Scandinavian terrazzo floor
underfoot. The same sandblasted floor extends
through all the circulation spaces within the
village, which are lined with skylights to
heighten guests’ awareness of seasons. ‘When
it’s snowing a lot,’ says Ingels, ‘you will feel
like you’re walking inside an igloo.’
At the opposite end of the entrance is the
service kitchen. BIG situated this at the heartwith a unique wall concept inspired by a spot
at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
that had cubes of end-grain flooring. From
these sprung the idea of creating the dining
room’s walls with stacks of wooden planks,
their thin end grain exposed on both the
interior and exterior to become wonderfully
tactile, three-dimensional surfaces. The
eventual structure took 46 cubic metres of
oak, and about 250,000 screws to complete.
Similarly, the flooring is in solid oak, in larger
planks supplied by Danish specialist Dinesen.
Made from trees that are up to 200 years old,
this HeartOak flooring has occasional cracks,
which Dinesen craftsmen have repaired with
precise butterfly joints. It’s a technique that
preserves the unique character of each »of the village, so guests can witness their
dishes being assembled, and experience the
energy of the kitchen. Likewise, staff can
check on the progress of individual tables.
Unlike a standard restaurant kitchen, there
are few metallic surfaces save for a raw steel
canopy. Chefs work at oak-clad kitchen
islands, specially developed by Thulstrup and
Belgian manufacturer Maes Inox. These are
complemented by an open brick barbecue
inspired by Noma’s Mexican sojourn. The
adjacent waiters’ room, in black concrete,
adds to the village’s textural diversity.
Next door, the 40-cover main dining room
is the largest new building within the village,
and architecturally the most complex. The
barn-like structure is made entirely of wood,192 ∑
David Thulstrup
Interior Design
Left, Thulstrup examining a piece of salvaged
pine, among other material swatches for the
Noma project, in his studio. The Copenhagen
designer created many bespoke designs for the
new restaurant, including the ‘Arv’ chair, pictured
right in the joinery workshop of Brdr Krüger