Novo Nordisk - Canadian HQ
Q&A with Joanne Chan, Principal & Bruce Freeman, Design Director at SDI Design Firm
How did SDI identify client needs and brand messaging?
The design process was very collaborative and inclusive. Working with Novo Nordisk’s steering committee and its President, with SDI acting as the bridge, the design team connected the business initiatives to the physical embodiment of the company’s cultural and brand objectives. We proposed a design narrative that incorporated the blending of Nordic Canadian & Danish cultures, celebrating the fact that Novo Nordisk’s original pharmaceutical product was invented here in Toronto. Allegories were created that represented the cultural linkages and provided a toolkit for Novo Nordisk to concisely communicate these messages to staff in a somewhat whimsical way.
Why were Fritz Hansen products chosen – specifically the AntTM Chair?
The client, with the design team’s full support, expressed a strong desire to pay homage to its corporate roots by using the same chair in its new Canadian canteen as had been used many decades earlier in a Novo Nordisk Copenhagen manufacturing building. The chair is Fritz Hansen’s classic AntTM, designed in 1952 by Arne Jacobsen specifically for the staff lunchroom of the Novo Industry building in Copenhagen. Some 60+ years later, the iconic chair is still fresh and relevant, standing the test of time. The client also retained and relocated several SwanTM chairs, fittingly upholstered in a bespoke “Novo Nordisk” blue fabric designed by Fritz Hansen.
What makes this project special?
This project is a great example of blending two Northern cultures into one. Nodding to Danish design and mythology as well as Canadian cultural values, the design team crafted a narrative around our love of nature and children’s stories.
Novo Nordisk’s mission is to pioneer scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to our medicines and working to prevent and ultimately cure the diseases we treat. To reinforce their mission, we saw their home as a vibrant tree wherein light filled the upper floor working spaces, stimulating growth of new ideas, with the ground level amenity spaces representing the forest floor where the roots are nourished. A wood-lined internal staircase is the connecting trunk between the two.
Using an iconic Canadian architype, a ‘boathouse’ overlooks a lake (café) where the AntTM chairs and tables transform into water lilies. The little second floor “Troll-houses” (1-on-1 spaces) sprang from Nordic mythology and are filled with aboriginal Canadian art.
It is the creation of these little allegories that enabled the client to inform their own local culture within the overall company.
Inside Novo Nordisk Canada
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