Mathieu Lehanneur is pleased to present his latest project, the first flagship store for high-end chocolatier Maison Cailler at the Nestlé subsidiary’s headquarters in Broc, Switzerland. The 60m2 building also serves as a visitor center, where guests can sample the goods to determine one’s “individual ‘chocolate personalities’ or that of your loved ones to offer formulas best suited to your taste.” The forward-thinking French designer has appropriated ” the local tradition of ‘tavillon,’ the wooden Swiss tiles… to design an armadillo structure.”
Where the material suggests an exotic creature curled into a scaly ball—a “protective yurt,” as Lehanneur puts it—the main entrance alludes to, um, gastromimetic inspiration, as the glass storefront resembles a radially-sliced wheel of gruyère. (The description refers to the latter as “the other regional specialty”; we’re assuming l’autre one is chocolate, not the more outré mammalian reference point, which are indigenous to South America.)previously-seen chocolatier concept, but the form might just be unique enough to warrant legal protection in addition to metaphorical defense. –>
As for the “chocolate personality” bit, visitors are invited to partake in five samples to “lead [them] towards the formulas which will most closely satisfy [their] stress-related food cravings.” We can’t confirm if the “laboratory protocol” prescribed by Lehanneur is double blind in the interest of the scientific method, but the pseudo-experimental approach should come as no surprise as another manifestation of the designer’s longtime fascination with science.
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This post was originally published by core77.com on August 31, 2012.
