Between Tradition and Future serien enlightens Margarete
The restaurant Margarete – which has opened its doors in downtown Frankfurt in February 2012 – is a nice example for the close cooperation between befriended companies – to which also serien.lighting has a feeling of commitment ever since. The founding partners, Raffaela Schöbel and Simon Horn, have designed the restaurant together with several befriended companies as a new place to experience conscious food culture as well as urban life and gathering.
The name of the restaurant was inspired by the architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky who started working at the construction authority of the city of Frankfurt in 1926. Under the lead of the head of the municipal planning and building control office, Ernst May, architects and designers participating in the residential construction program “New Frankfurt” developed and designed groundbreaking concepts in the fields of residential and municipal construction, as well as a comprehensive program of construction and interior elements for which the principles of usefulness, aesthetic details, sustainability and functionality were put in the focus. In the course of this initiative, Schütte-Lihotzky developed the famous “Frankfurt kitchen” which considered ergonomic and practical aspects for kitchen work and simplified the processes for the “small space” kitchen with numerous innovations.
The design of the restaurant Margarete captures fundamental principles such as clarity, accessibility and functionality. At the same time, requirements for a contemporary, open and communicative restaurant are also considered: At Margarete the kitchen is not a separately shielded room but invites guests to have a glimpse on how meals are being prepared.
As the new „Frankfurter kitchen“, the restaurant has become the new hot-spot for urban life and conscious food culture right in the heart of city. For this place, serien.lighting has developed several lighting prototypes based on existing concepts, which perfectly fit into the architectural frame and mirror the essential concept. They become an expression of the well-working cooperation between befriended companies, a symbol for the connection between the past and the future and a testimony for the commitment of serien.lighting to the city of Frankfurt.
