Bronda - The Taste, Sound and Look of Helsinki

Matti Wikberg says that the idea for this restaurant had been growing in their minds for a long time and it was just a matter of finding the right location. The restaurant is located at Eteläesplanadi 20, a historical and protected building with large glass walls and many different ceiling heights, some reaching up to seven metres. To acquire the space, which is owned by Dutch property investment company CBRE, BW Restaurants entered a bidding contest alongside five other companies and were chosen as the ideal tenant for the space.

The major design challenge of the entire project was the kitchen with the low ceiling height. The basis for the interior design of the space was to respect the classic look and feel it has while making the most of the height and glass walls which reach all the way to the ceiling and bring the street life in, and the restaurant life outside. The interior designer was the same as for Farang, Matti’s brother Risto of Futu Design.

Audio is an important feature in restaurants and Matti says they wanted to see how an active system would work in Bronda. The brand choice for the audio system was obvious: “As we wanted to have a Finnish brand and the best available in the market, we didn’t really have to think twice about going for Genelec.”

Matti also confesses to being a Genelec fan in his private life too, having a 5.1 system installed at his home, and he continues: “I am very pleased that we got to work on this project with Genelec. The space itself seems somewhat challenging for audio, but with separate systems for different spaces in the restaurant, the end result works well: the quality of sound needs to remain constant in the different spaces on different volume levels. As you can imagine, a seven metre high dining hall, cocktail bar, the cabinets and the terrace outside all require slightly different things from audio, and Genelec offered products to match this flexibility requirement perfectly. The different areas of the restaurant are flexible, too: the cabinets can be shared to three smaller areas or used as one large space, which seats up to 60 people.”

A Crestron control system for the project was designed by Presson Oy of Espoo, and audio processing, correction filters and bass management were achieved using Symetrix Radius processors. Bronda offers a French, Italian, and Spanish-influenced menu, or just cocktails at the bar – always combined with excellent sound reproduction from Genelec.

KIT LIST

OUTSIDE TERRACE:
• 4 x AIW25 ceiling mounted

LOUNGE BAR:
• 2 x 4020BWM
• 8 x 4040AWM
• 10 x 8000-402W wall mounts
• 2 x 7070A’s ceiling mounted

DINING HALL:
• 10 x 4030BWM
• 10 x 8000-402W wall mounts
• 2 x 7060B hidden in the service stations

BATHROOM HAND WASH AREA:
• 2 x 4020BWM
• 2 x 8000-422W wall mounts

CABINETS:
• 8 x 4020BWM
• 8 x 8000-422W wall mounts

CABINET VIDEO SCREEN:
• 2 x 4040A
• 2 x 8000-402W wall mounts

All photography ©Presson Oy