A new space-themed staff restaurant for aerospace group OHB Bremen has proved very popular with staff, so much so that the consultant team had to adapt creatively to cater for high demand.
The Spacelounge represents an investment of €4.2m by the family-owned German company, converting an empty office building into a sleek and bright staff canteen.
The group – which is behind satellites such as Copernicus and Galileo, and develops a range of high-tech aerospace systems – decided to introduce a subsidized workplace canteen and, in September 2022, appointed foodservice consulting firm Reisner & Frank to handle the project.
Fully open one year later, the dining area has outside terrace seating for 50, while the light interior has 199 places. The main kitchen offers four lunch dishes daily, plus a barista bar for bakery items, coffees and salads.
Hamburg-based interior designer Stephen Williams Associates created different zones named after planets, in a colorful and playful nod to the work of OHB. The kitchen, painted bright yellow, is named The Sun. Other dining areas include Mars, Neptune and Mother Earth.
“It’s actually really nice,” says Yannik Eckhardt, team leader at Reisner & Frank. “We have one main kitchen and two counters, and one end is all surrounded in glass, so it’s a nice place to sit all through the day.”
Originally designed for 450 people daily, it is now serving between 500 and 700 diners.
“(The restaurant) is a really high standard,” Eckhardt says. “They never had a canteen before, and they had no idea if people would like it or not. But in the end, it’s crowded, and they make way more dishes a day than we planned in the beginning.”
A second counter was added for smoother service, and the original plan – to have staff clear the tables – was adapted to use rack trolleys for empty trays instead.
Open to change
“It’s not a new building and that came with a lot of restrictions, so we had to think a lot about what is technically possible to integrate in that building,” says Reisner & Frank managing partner Jörg Csanitz FCSI.
Fitting the kitchen exhaust valve also posed a logistical challenge – Eckhardt says it was “really, really tough” to position it in the building. In the end, part of the ceiling was lowered to allow the exhaust and all the necessary equipment to be connected above.
Solutions were also found for the limited main kitchen, of just 75 square meters.
“We also implemented a chiller in here so that they can make a pre-production,” says Csanitz, “so, some things they can prepare or just cook the day before and then serve it the next day. It helps with so many people coming through.”
The dining space is also kitted out with plugs and connection points, so it can be
used by employees for flexible working. “What we don’t want to build is a canteen that serves for two hours and then it’s empty,” adds Eckhardt.
The strong numbers of diners and the smooth working relationships are testament to the success of the project, the pair agree.
“I think what was really good during the project was that we were really flexible and reacted to a lot of different wishes our client had,” says Csanitz. “Finding a client that is willing to decide in a fast way what kind of concept they want is important.
“Sometimes, clients can take half a year to decide what kind of concept they want to have. This client just said: ‘We like the idea, we’ll take it.’”
Helen Roxburgh
