Location: Copenhagen, Denmark.

Architect: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.

Noma, a restaurant that has been recognized four times as the best in the world by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, has reopened in a new location after 14 years in a 16th century harbourside warehouse. The new restaurant is situated in a protected ex-military warehouse in the community of Christiania, between two lakes. The design of the new restaurant is centred around the idea of dissolving the restaurant’s individual functions and organising them into a collection of separate yet connected buildings. A total of 11 spaces are densely clustered around the restaurant’s heart: the kitchen. The 40-cover dining room and adjacent private dining room are made of stacked timber planks that resemble neatly piled wood at a lumber yard. 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. The restaurant’s three greenhouses are used as a garden, test kitchen and bakery. 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. The historic 100m long single-story warehouse completes the circle of buildings surrounding the kitchen. The warehouse’s raw concrete shell was preserved and a massive wooden shelf inserted 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.

Photo credit: Rasmus Hjortshøj, Jason Loucas