King opens Unilever Foods Innovation Centre

Today, King Willem-Alexander, opened the highly sustainable Unilever Foods Innovation Centre ‘Hive’ on the Wageningen Campus. In this vibrant innovation powerhouse, researchers collaborate on the foods of tomorrow toward a healthy and sustainable world.

King opens Unilever Foods Innovation Centre

The energy-neutral building designed especially for Unilever, contains office spaces, laboratories, experience kitchens and a mini-factory in which new products are tested and developed on a small scale.

Fokkema & Partners Architecten is responsible for the complete interior design. Unilever wanted a building that is ‘open by default and therefore a large part of the building is publicly accessible. Here you will find a welcoming tea bar, a large demo kitchen, an open auditorium and a restaurant, all open for visitors, students and researchers who want to be part of the Foods ecosystem.

Unilever Foods Innovation Centre interior

The building won two BREEAM Awards in 2019 and received the highest certification: BREEAM-NL Outstanding. Fokkema & Partners then took the ambition to realise a circular interior to a new level. 95% of the building is furnished with reused furniture, equipment and interior elements from former Unilever R&D sites in Vlaardingen, Poland and Germany.

Unilever Foods Innovation Centre partners: Paul de Ruiter Architects, Dura Vermeer, DWA, Lucassen bouwconstructies, Hollander Techniek, Arcadis, Dr. Heinekamp, Sandenburg, MAT25, D&S Process Solutions, DGMR.

Photography: Ossip van Duivenbode

Unilever Foods Innovation Centre exterior

To check out a clip from the opening event, click here.

Unilever Foods Innovation Centre event

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