Dezeen Magazine

Modern Pantry restaurant designed by AvroKO to reflect the founder's Danish roots

Hand-blown lamps are paired with herringbone wood flooring and blue-hued furniture inside this London restaurant, designed by New York studio AvroKO to reflect the Danish heritage of owner Anna Hansen (+ slideshow).

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

The second branch of the Modern Pantry is situated in Finsbury Square, between the trendy Shoreditch neighbourhood and the financial district of the City of London.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

Founder Anna Hansen, who was born in Canada but raised in New Zealand, spent many hours cooking with her Danish grandmother as a child – prompting AvroKo to explore the Danish Modern movement with their design.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

Materials and furniture used throughout the interior are intended to reflect the movement, which emerged in the early part of the 20th century, and aimed to combine traditional craftsmanship with ergonomic and elegant forms.

They paired woods such as oak, teak and walnut, with patterned tiles, bent plywood, and hand-blown glass.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

They also chose a simple colour palette of dark blue and off-white hues, influenced by a Danish catalogue of plant life.

"The colour palette derived from the Flora Danica – a complete atlas of indigenous Danish plant life catalogued in copper engraved plates during the late 18th and early 19th centuries on behalf of the king," said the architects.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

"After the Flora Danica was completed, the Danish Crown Prince ordered a porcelain set of the tome to be made in blue and white as a way of giving the work back to the Danish people in the most accessible way, via the dinner table," they added.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

This also inspired the team to chronicle indigenous botany in their own way, and they created Flora Annica – a collection of framed plants which share a commonality between Anna's native New Zealand and her adopted home of England.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

"Anna's grandparents imbued in her a healthy respect for the natural world, resulting in a childhood spent in the garden, foraging the countryside for unique plants to be used in cooking or medicine, and developing a healthy respect for ingredients out of the vegetable patch," said the team.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

"Her grandmother would often take small pieces of plant and press them, making a collection of botany reminiscent of the styles used in Flora Danica," they added.

"Many of the commissioned prints are mounted in the private dining room."

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

The restaraunt is divided up into three main areas. Herringbone-patterned wood flooring is located in the restaurant space, as well as the private dining room. A bar is located near the entrance, where the flooring changes to tiles.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

Movable panels allow the restaurant's layout to be altered as necessary.

Both the walls and lofty ceilings are painted white, allowing natural light entering through large south-facing windows to be reflected around the space.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

A total of 40 hand-blown pendant lights by lighting designer Jon Lewis are dotted through the interior to illuminate the space in the evenings. No two fixtures are the same, due to the ways in which they were pushed out of the mould.

Modern Pantry restaurant by AvroKo

This is the second Modern Pantry restaurant in London. The first was designed by Jump Studios, and features furniture and lighting pieces by Marcel Wanders and Piet Hein Eek.

Other new restaurants in the British capital include an Irani-cafe-inspired restaurant inside a former railway transit shed close to King's Cross station, and Damien Hirst's pharmacy-themed eatery at Newport Street Gallery.