Healthy fast food tastefully illuminated: Youfresh, Berlin

Amid familiar fast food giants at the Mall of Berlin is a small but stylish shop that sets itself apart with baskets of fruit and vegetables pointing to a wide choice of freshly made snacks, juices and salads. Pea green and white dominate its logo and interior in a concept designed to communicate, in response to the current food trend, that healthy fast food is not a myth. For added appeal, the wide selection of vitamin-packed goodness is illuminated by flexible ERCO lighting tools designed to create a warm and inviting ambience in a compact setting.

The Youfresh shop, opened by Margaretha and Jan Olszewski in the new Mall of Berlin at Leipziger Platz, is testimony that fast food can actually be fresh, healthy and tasty. The menu offers soups, salads, sandwiches - including vegan options - juices, smoothies and frozen yoghurts. All the food, except the soups, is prepared on the premises and to order, while the salad bar allows customers to create their own preferred versions, dressed with a daily and seasonal selection of healthy toppings. Competing with the salad as a low-calorie snack is the frozen yoghurt, which is made in-house using organic milk and served to taste with fruit, muesli, sauces and other sweet treats. Almost 50 different toppings are neatly arranged at a special station along the side wall at the back of the shop, opposite the dining area.

Fresh pea green and white dominate the narrow food parlour that occupies no more than 90 square metres. Designed to the original plans drawn up by the interior design experts of the Ippolito Fleitz Group from Stuttgart and Berlin, the most prominent interior feature is a white Corian counter forming an elongated L-shape; its short section - decorated with fruit, herbs and an XXL sized frozen yoghurt display - extends into the mall so as to connect with passers-by. “The counter simulates progression into the depth of the room,” explains designer Michael Bertram of the Ippolito Fleitz Group. “From a functional aspect, it offers an impressive range of features and catering essentials, such as chiller trays, drink dispensers, salad containers and, of course, the cash point.” Built with versatility in mind, the designers were careful not to assign specific locations to any feature. “This approach gives the shop operators carte blanche to change decorations and create their own merchandising displays,” the designer adds.

Thanks to the ERCO LED lighting tools, maximum flexibility extends all the way to the lighting concept. Built entirely around the Optec range, using the three light distribution options flood, oval flood and wallwash, the spotlights are mounted on three parallel track sections under the suspended ceiling, achieving uniform ambient lighting throughout the shop, whilst selected objects are effectively accentuated. Optec wallwashers (12W in warm white) provide evenly distributed light on the vertical surfaces, giving the interior of just under 4m a wider and distinctly spacious feel, with a pleasantly bright and welcoming atmosphere. The menu boards and price lists at the front of the shop are efficiently illuminated in bright light to ensure easy reading, whilst Optec wallwashers at the back bathe the wall in perfectly uniform light for a fresh and appetising presentation of the vast assortment of ingredients at the topping station. The wallwashers are complemented by Optec spotlights with flood and oval flood distributions that accentuate the elongated counter section. At the checkout, Optec with flood distribution achieves brilliant ambient lighting whilst preventing glare on the screen. For emphasis, the oversized plastic frozen yoghurt model near the entrance is illuminated by Optec with flood characteristic, aiming to whet the customers’ appetite for more.

The ERCO Optec spotlights used for Youfresh are true all-round talents. In versions with different light distributions, Optec covers the full bandwidth of lighting requirements in the shop. Based on a meticulous design, the lighting concept aims to accentuate the freshness aspect of the Youfresh brand and its products whilst facilitating a flexible response to different presentation scenarios, preparation and sale.

Project data

Project: Youfresh, Berlin / Germany
Architecture: Ippolito Fleitz Group, Stuttgart & Berlin / Germany
Photography: Sebastian Mayer, Berlin / Germany
Product: Optec
Photo credits: © ERCO GmbH, www.erco.com, photo: Sebastian Mayer