Nando’s – Johannesburg Central Kitchen

Firm
  • Client Nando's,
  • size 80,000 sqft
  • Year 2014
  • Location Johannesburg, South Africa,
  • Onepointzero – in collaboration with ASM Architects – has designed a new workplace and headquarters for worldwide restaurant group Nando’s which is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    The collective ramshackle factories, buildings and warehouses that comprised the original home and headquarters of Nando’s were recently given an exciting, transformative makeover. What was once the humble sauce bottling plant of this great South African food and restaurant brand is now a contemporary, cohesive and truly African-inspired precinct accommodating Nando’s worldwide licensing offices, trading offices, training facilities among other department campuses.

    With Onepointzero having been awarded the interior design contract, the gentrification of the existing offices and distribution warehouse in Lorentzville, Johannesburg, has seen a new identity emerging for the brand that is as authentically modern African as it is cosmopolitan.

    Showcasing the finest furniture, craft and sustainable design technologies, the talents of Onepointzero  along with those of ASM Architects and Tracy Lee Lynch has, together, created true design inspiration for both international and emerging markets.

    The premises showcases the finest fare in local craftsmanship – Nando’s vast and eclectic art collection was, according to JP Beukes, Onepointzero’s founder and Creative Director, central to the brief. Along with steel frames and kiaat parquet, the precinct “is able to serve as a reference to an era of buildings that has been modified and adapted over a 20-year period,” explains Beukes.

    “Along with the fact that all of the furniture has been locally designed and manufactured in South Africa,” Beukes says that “the clever reuse of sustainable materials has been pivotal to the build”. A project that has taken 18 months to complete, has reached beyond its monetary investment and square meterage of 7 500sq/m plus, and has firmly cemented Nando’s as an iconic heritage landmark on South African soil. From office and legal space to an in house gym, restaurant and culinary invention centre, Nando’s continues to provide not only customer satisfaction through its ongoing food and beverage supply chain, but a sampling of design genius that is similarly (and by social trademark) unique, optimistic and tide-bearing.

    Design Team: Creative Director: Tracy Lee Lynch | JP Beukes of Onepointzero
    Architects: ASM Architects
    Photography: JP Beukes