Beef Club “Fire + Salt” is a radical refresh of an existing eatery in Autostadt, the automotive theme park at the headquarters of Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg. At the center of the space is the theatrical preparation of food on a grill - and an open brick fireplace is positioned where everyone can see it, recalling an archaic fire at the center of a shared dining experience. Building materials emphasize the fire and salt of the menu - the grill is made from fired bricks; wood dining tables have been treated with salt to introduce unique colors, patterns, and textures.

The theme of the dining menu is “Fire & Salt” – so, in the interior design, building materials were also selected based on this theme. The open part of the kitchen is made from brick – baked earth. This hearth is made from a composition of three kinds of fired brick – glazed and unglazed in different formats. The brick grill grows out of the podium in an assemblage of inter-related volumes. Outside, the brick becomes the floor of the terrace and becomes built-in benches. A lightweight metal pergola creates a framework that makes outdoor rooms.

Salt is also used as a building material. A large block of solid salt sits on the brick plinth as a table for display; dining tables are made from woods that have been salted to bring out a unique color and texture. The whole ensemble is brought together in a colorful and joyous composition of discrete rooms within rooms

The restaurant is located in Wolfsburg Germany, a locale that has several very significant projects by Alvar Aalto – and both the brickwork of the grill and its plinth as well as the wood benches that the diners sit on were inspired by Aalto’s examples.

The design of the restaurant is sustainable in several ways – reusing as much existing material as possible from the previous restaurant while upcycling an underperforming space into something more desirable and more efficient. Major components of the material from the old restaurant were saved in place, reused, and transformed into new space – floors, walls, lighting, technical installations. The effect is transformative and the restaurant is new again by smartly reusing the old.

Because the project aspires to combine the archaic and the technological, the open fire is efficiently filtered, drafted, and vented using the most energy efficient technologies possible. All of the food in the restaurant is prepared on a wood fire, an arguably environmentally-friendly method for food preparation using locally sourced, renewable resources for fuel. Burning wood is part of the natural carbon cycle - the CO2 emitted during wood burning is roughly equal to the amount of CO2 absorbed by the tree during its growth – and it reduces reliance on fossil fuels to prepare food.

The project is also importantly socially beneficial – the restaurant used to be uniformly “elegant” – but the new, bright, open dining room has been deliberately redesigned to become more welcoming and attractive to the community of Wolfsburg, genuinely inviting the broader community into the campus. The restaurant now offers two different kinds of atmospheres: a joyful social area in the front that overlooks an outdoor terrace and an elegant private area in the rear where small groups can gather for celebrations or more confidential meals.

The concept of the project is to combine the archaic and the technological: cooking with fire is as old as our species, but to do it within a large modern structure - with lots of other uses - combines the most ancient techniques with the most contemporary. The simple and ancient idea is to cook and eat in a community with fire and salt – but to do so safely, within an existing technological infrastructure, with the most current culinary, efficiency, and safety standards.

“For the brick “altar” we were inspired by Alvar Aalto’s wonderful Wolsburg churches just across the city from the restaurant.

“The brick plinth makes the fire more visible for the theatrical presentation of the food on the fire.”

“The concept of the project is to harness the archaic within the technological.”

“All the food is prepared using fire and salt – and so are the building materials – bricks are made from baked earth, the tables are salted in production to produce patterns and colors - and there is the big block of solid salt on the plinth.”

Ester Bruzkus Architekten was founded in Berlin in 2002 and has extensive international experience in design at all scales: from the design of furniture, special apartments and offices, to international cinemas, restaurants and hotels.

We like working with straight lines, precise planning, material differences, and plenty of surprises.

We like contrasts of thick and thin, sharp and soft, curved and straight, rough and smooth, common and opulent, colorful and restrained, playful and well-resolved.

We like projects that create a dialogue of space and light, materiality and color, existing constraints and new opportunities - and especially a synergy between the needs of the space, the client, and the aspirations of great design.

We like boxes within boxes, rooms within rooms, the blurring of inside and out, material contrasts, and surprising color combinations.

We like collecting - we collect images and colors that speak to our heart and combine them in our own way.

We find inspiration in lots of places... old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows...