Cosmo Grill is a blend of the profanity of a fast-food snack bar with the sophistication of Japanese dining, and a combination of the cosmopolitan and the local. It is located in Maximilianstrasse 10, Munich, Germany.
The 80m² restaurant accommodates up to six tables.
The concept of the Cosmo Grill is that of being the ‘last snack bar on the edge of the universe’, one of heroic modernism and when space was seen as the final frontier and Utopia was just around the corner.
Cosmo Grill’s diagrammatic design
Distorted rectangles of MDF produce a curved, spatial diagram. This type of relief is reminiscent of 1970s wall designs in Baikonur, the Kazakhstan Cosmonaut city. However, instead of rows of identical elements, the new idea consists of parts that resemble one another and were produced using a CAM five-axis milling machine.
Standardised production as a paradigm of modernism experiences a shift to mass customisation, when retro becomes future design.
The shape of the Cosmo Grill’s wall was modelled using a computer-animated simulation of the gravitational field of our solar system.
Making an entrance
Above the entrance is the Cosmo chandelier, the shape of which was also derived from the Swarovski Cosmo wall simulation.
Whereas the Cosmo wall presents its material as a positive shape the Cosmo chandelier visualises the immaterial gravitational lines as a negative outline produced from light.
Award-winning design
Cosmo Grill won the Reddot Communication Design Award from Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in 2007.
The grill was nominated for the Leaders Club Award 2007 by the Leaders Club of Germany, and was also nominated for the LEAF International Interior Design Award 2007.
The Cosmo Grill’s design won the iF product – design Award 2008 by iF International Forum Design of Hanover.
Contractors of the Cosmo Grill
The contractor and architect of Cosmo Grill is Franken-architekten. The project team that worked on this project consisted of Frank Brammer, Bernhard Franken, Tanja Schaile, Christian Fritz, Berthold Scharrer and Isabel Strelow.