PROJECTS


“Early on, we wanted to build a 1-to-1 model counter to understand what would work,” he remarks. “For the chocolate counter, for example, we wanted to see how people could see the goods and reach them, and how the counters would be cleaned. Bread is a destructive material that can scratch and make crumbs, and it is affected by temperature and light. And you can’t have any shadows on the goods, so we needed the right lighting for each kind of product. “The entire floor, you have to understand, is a high-traffic area, and so many people come at the weekends, but you can’t have doors opening and closing all the time, so you need to find different solutions for things such as cooling and ventilation.” A lot of thought has gone into temperature control and airflow at each counter. Chocolate, for instance, becomes white if it is cold underneath. Also, it cannot be too dry or too moist, as water


destroys chocolate, and discovering that the AC is turned off overnight required further adaptations. “The equipment side is not complicated, so long as you understand basics, such as oysters needing special stainless steel, and you follow food safety rules,” Wagner explains. “Then you need the ventilation to work without disturbing the displays. Now we are looking at small details, including ventilation systems for cooking fish, which has not been working as planned. “You have to look for the specific manufacturers


and get them to commit to making sure the equipment works at the end of the day,” he adds. “The biggest challenge, however, is the management side. There is a general contractor, several kitchen companies, designers, and the owners, so a lot of coordination and communication is required. There are more than 20 different counters, some owned by KaDeWe, others rented out, so managing the space is complex.”


A learning curve


Unlike a self-contained restaurant or a kitchen in a university or hospital, the KaDeWe food court has a myriad of moving parts, and any change to one small piece has a knock-on effect on other counters and their infrastructure. “The client is happy with the progress so far, and it is working well for customers,” Wagner says. “And the best part of it all is that we have found out what you can do with LED lighting. The chocolate counter, for example, is curved like a wave, and we have built in invisible lighting to illuminate the goods.” “Also, we have learnt that we will never use active cooling again with fish,” he adds. “We will always use ice. Cooling underneath starts freezing and blocking, but ice just melts away, so you just need to clean it properly and there is no smell.” A project like KaDeWe cannot succeed without the experience of consultants like Wagner and his team at K’DREI, but the scale and complexity of the food court is such that it has lessons for even the most seasoned of designers.


Each counter brought a new challenge. Left: bread scratches surfaces and is affected by temperature and light. Right: chocolate cannot be too dry or too moist and is affected by cold


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