After the success of its first ever Customer Engagement Center established in Beijing, Nestlé Professional – the consulting business unit under Nestlé Corporate decided to start planning for their next center in Shanghai. A design competition was commenced in January 2015 and subsequently in May, Inkmason was selected as the design consultant of the milestone project. Although the precedent Beijing project was also designed by Inkmason few years back, the shanghai project was anticipated to be even more challenging with a much higher expectation and standard.
The Nestlé Professional Customer Engagement Center (CEC) Shanghai is a 750 sqm space located in Hua Xin Office Complex. It consists of a beverage studio, a show kitchen of 250 sqm, a 50 seats dinning area, a 50 seats training center, a demo pantry, meeting room, back office, storage and other supporting functions all under one roof. Once opened it provides an all-in-one facility to showcase not only Nestlé products but equally important their professionalism in culinary business.
Although it mimics a fully functioned restaurant, CEC Shanghai is essentially a facility for research and development, tasting and testing of new food and beverage products and machines produced by Nestlé. With its target end-users being restaurant owners, managers, marketing professionals, and chefs, it also provides an ideal space for training, meeting and collaboration.
The design concept for the new CEC is “eggshell or the ceramic ware” – the containers or vessels of food, natural and man-made. For many different cultures, people see both eggshell and ceramic as a symbol of simplicity and quality, fragile yet strong.It protects and stores the delicious food inside. It would be the most appropriate analogy for expressing the business nature and professionalism ofthe client.
There are two main entrances to CEC Shanghai. When guests enter from the west entrance, they will be greeted at the lobby reception area flanked by two double curved walls that looks like giant eggshells, on which the logo and mission statement of Nestlé professional is humbly displayed. The eggshell logo wall wraps around a basket-like structure, and inside a cozy waiting area for the guest to enjoy a display of the corporate’s value and communication video.
The guests will be lead past the reception area, into the main dining area. On the left is a stone wall with a vast viewing window into the kitchen area. The stone wall recalls the tactile feeling of a traditional stone stove. Its warm ambient frames the cold stainless steel inside the kitchen, emphasizing the importance of the corporate’s professionalism and high standard in the industry.
Opposite to the show kitchen and shielded by the eggshell, the main dining area and beverage studio is a delicious yet highly versatile event area. There are numerous elements and details that recalls the memories of old shanghai, for example the art deco style floor lamp in front of the timber screen and the vegetal wall, the street signs on the red brick backdrop, and the century old Nestlé product commercialon the cushions. The contrasts of such historical references with other contemporary elements are remarkably “Shanghaist”
After the dining area and beverage studio and separated by a courtyard, the training and meeting facilities are located on the eastern part of the space. This is also where an office setting is intentionally created to showcase Nestlé professional’s service for their corporate office clients.
Throughout the whole CEC, one may notice the daring but consistent use of curvilinear forms and spaces. Although it relates to the fluidity of food and beverage as well as the client’s logo, the real reason behind is more sophisticated than plainly aesthetic. As the matter of fact, the rental unit is a “boot-shaped” floor plan with literally no straight angle walls. Adding to that complexity, the structural slab above is slopped, undulated and triangulated due to the exterior architectural design. With the help of curvilinear form, the designer is able to eliminate most of the strange corners and create a more comfortable space.
The Nestlé CEC Shanghai was officially inaugurated on 26 September 2016 with very positive feedbacks from both the client and from their visitors. It is once again a successful example showing Inkmason’s highly understanding of the client’s business and functional needs, and creates aesthetically pleasing, functional and sophisticated design.
