Serono Headquarters Restaurant

Serono headquarters restaurant, Geneva; project and photo by Mackay + Partners

Corian® solid surface is on the design menu at the Serono HQ Restaurant in Geneva

Mackay + Partners provided an interior design scheme, including a 400-seat restaurant, at the new admin and R&D campus for the Merck Serono biotechnology business in Geneva. Following a brief to integrate elements of nature into this space, Mackay + Partners specified Corian® for a backdrop featuring flower and leaf imagery as part of the overall restaurant design that incorporated graphic and lighting effects.

Corian® solid surface was selected not only for its decorative versatility and translucency but also for its strength and easy maintenance. This was imperative as the headquarters’ restaurant is used six days a week for two lunch sittings, plus dinners and functions. Corian® solid surface was also used at the speakeasy, a café, in the library on curved display units, on the café service counter and for wall and basin applications in the Executive bathrooms.

Gavin Harris of Mackay + Partners chose to work with Corian® because, “it offers a pleasingly solid, monolithic feel to these restaurant design elements. The capability for graphic effects using the back-lit properties of Corian® solid surface provides a second story to the space. What’s more, most areas will encounter high usage and wear - and the feedback from the clients is that it not only looks great, but is also proving to be easy to maintain.”

The new site accommodates approximately 1,200 staff and consists of six linked buildings, offering 40,000 square metres of office and laboratory space, as well as, conference, restaurant, café, speakeasy, library, and fitness facilities. 

“In terms of construction and performance,” says Murphy Jahn Architects, “The building is more informed by principles of science and technology, rather than design and style. Horizon Serono uses new energy concepts that assume responsibility for more than form and aesthetic. Daylight, natural ventilation, solar energy and the idea that a building modulates its own climate, are the basic concepts to maximise the use of natural resources and minimise the use of technical and mechanical equipment. This results in a building of high technology, but low energy consumption.”

Mackay + Partners were awarded the project in 2004, and have created a series of overlapping schemes that combines Serono’s corporate technically-advanced image, with the contemporary openness of the building’s glass and steel structure. The aim was to provide an environment that enabled the interaction of the personnel within - and with the public - and to promote the collective vision of the company. 

Mackay + Partners LLP is a multi-disciplinary practice at the creative end of Architecture and Interior Design.

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