🍔 Burger King AI Tool Tracks How Often Employees Say 'Please' and 'Thank You' 🍔

https://www.pcmag.com/news/burger-king-ai-tool-tracks-how-often-employees-say-please-and-thank-you

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McDonald's opens "UK's first net-zero restaurant"

Fast-food chain McDonald's has opened what it claims is the UK's first net-zero carbon restaurant building.

Built using natural or recycled materials and powered by a combination of wind turbines and solar panels, the restaurant, in Market Drayton, Shropshire, was designed to meet net-zero standards in both its construction and everyday operation.

However, McDonald's confirmed to Dezeen that consumption-based emissions associated with its beef-heavy menu have not been taken into account – meaning that the restaurant overall is not net-zero in the strictest sense.

McDonald's said it intends to use the project as a "blueprint" for future restaurants

For a building to be net-zero it must remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it emits throughout its lifespan, both in the form of embodied carbon and operational carbon associated with construction, occupation and eventual demolition.

McDonald's said the Market Drayton eatery is the first in the country which fits into the UK Green Building Council's (UKGBC) net-zero carbon buildings framework.

It plans to use the design as a "blueprint" for McDonald's new builds around the UK from 2022, with some of the sustainable measures already being implemented at other outlets.

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The building was designed by Hertfordshire studio Scurr Architects, while Manchester-based AEW Architects handled site design.

"At McDonald's, we believe that our food needs to be served in restaurants that are sustainable for the future," said Beth Hart, McDonald's vice president of supply chain and brand trust.

"Market Drayton is a big step towards making that a reality, enabling us to test and put into practice what a net-zero emissions building, both in build and use, really looks like."

The drive-thru lane was built using recycled tyres

The restaurant's walls are insulated with wool from British sheep instead of man-made materials, while the cladding is crafted from recycled IT equipment and white household goods.

Signs are made from used McDonald's coffee beans, in what the chain described as an example of its action to introduce "circular waste solutions".

In the car park, more than 1,000 kerbstones were made from 182 recycled plastic bottles each, which McDonald's said reduced carbon emissions by 25 kilograms per kerb compared to conventional concrete examples.

Designed to have "McDonald's look and feel"

The drive-thru lane was constructed from recycled tyres, producing less greenhouse gas than tarmac and reducing the amount of water washing down the drain by being more absorbent.

Power is provided by two on-site wind turbines and 92 square metres of solar panels, together producing 60,000-kilowatt-hours of energy per year.

Local school children have also designed a biodiversity garden and nature trail for behind the restaurant.

Wall signs were made from used coffee beans

Despite the green innovations, the Big Mac maker said the restaurant "has been deliberately designed to retain the familiar McDonald's look and feel", in order to make it easier to replicate on other sites.

In response to a question from Dezeen about whether it used carbon offsetting for the Market Drayton restaurant, which is required in most cases to achieve net-zero status for buildings, McDonald's said that where it could not decarbonise beyond construction impacts, energy use and producing renewable power, it neutralised "any remaining emissions with high-quality carbon removal projects".

McDonald's has set itself a target to make all 1,400 of its restaurants and offices in the UK meet net-zero emissions standards by 2030, and for its entire UK and Ireland business, including food, to follow suit by 2040.

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Its next commitment is for all furniture in its new and refurbished restaurants to be made from recycled or certified materials and designed to be recycled or reused by 2023.

By 2025, it has pledged to have a "market-leading vegan, plant-based food and drinks offering".

"The challenge of decarbonising the construction industry is a complex one, but McDonald's commitment to building the first restaurant in the UK in line with UKGBC's net-zero carbon buildings framework is a critical first step," said Simon McWhirter, director of communications, policy and places at UKGBC.

"We welcome the ambition to achieve net-zero emissions for all McDonald's restaurants and offices by 2030."

The photography is by Anthony Devlin and Richard McCarthy/PA Wire.

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Masquespacio designs colour-blocked burger joint in Turin

Spanish design agency Masquespacio has created the interiors of Italian fast food chain Bun's Turin branch that combines blocks of pink and green with a blue seating area designed to look like a swimming pool.

Bun Turin is a burger joint that takes its bold identity from the first Bun restaurant in Milan, which was also designed by Masquespacio.

"This restaurant's target customer is the urban lifestyle of people born late in the Millennium and the new Generation Z," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

The burger bar is in Turin

Characterised by three distinct colourful areas, the burger joint uses pink, blue and green in order to playfully carve out different spaces in the restaurant.

The sections are designed so that the restaurant's three large windows present each colour as a separate blocked out space from the outside.

Green and pink sections feature in the restaurant

Upon entering Bun Turin, visitors are greeted with an ordering bar and drinks and ice cream fridge coloured in a dusty sage shade of the restaurant's trademark green.

Lit-up digital menu boards with gold accents display the restaurant's food options, while a version of the same neon burger logo found in Bun's Milan branch glows from a nearby pillar.

A neon burger sign glows from a pillar

Pink and blue are used for two different seating areas both complete with built-in furniture.

In the pink area, a central table coloured partly in green straddles both the pink and green sections of the restaurant.

Sugary-pink terrazzo steps that double as a planter lead visitors to seats tucked into arched booths in the pink seating area, which also houses the burger joint's toilets.

The pink seating area has terrazzo steps

Bun Turin's all-blue seating area is built from pale tiles that are designed to look like a swimming pool.

The area features mock pool ladders which aim to give visitors the impression of floating in water while they eat.

"Once we defined Bun's identity we developed the project in 3D," said Penasse.

"At the end of the process, we do a lot of trials to reach the correct combination of colours and materials," continued the designer.

"In this case, we had several options for colour combinations, all focussed on a younger audience."

The blue seating area resembles a swimming pool

Apart from tiles by Complementto, all of the furniture in Bun Turin was designed by Masquespacio.

"It is important for clients that Bun spaces can be recognised wherever they are located," explained Penasse.

"For this reason, the design will evolve and be slightly different in each space, but maintain a clear identity."

Each section is revealed to the street by a large window

Masquespacio is a Valencia-based design agency founded in 2010 by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, known for its use of bright colour.

Other recent projects by the studio include colour-blocked student housing in Bilbao, and a stucco and terracotta restaurant in the Spanish town of Aragon constructed from twisting shapes informed by the nearby Pyrenees mountains.

Photography is by Gregory Abbate.

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CUT Architectures designs sunset-hued interior for Parisian burger joint in ode to California

The mid-century architecture and roadside diners of the American west informed the interior of this nostalgic hamburger restaurant in Paris designed by CUT Architectures.

Located in Paris's Citadium – a multi-brand department store on Boulevard Hausmann that is focused on lifestyle, streetwear, and sneaker culture – PNY Citadium is the hamburger chain's seventh opening in the city.

Top image: yellow booth seating has a mid-century look. Above: marquee lettering announces the menu

Paris studio CUT Architectures – which previously designed PNY's first, second, third and fourth outposts – was invited back to create this location around the theme "electric tropical diner".

The interior, which features neon tube lighting, aluminium walls and embossed stainless steel, seeks to capture the "vivid and unique" energy of America's West Coast.

Bar stools are paired with circular tables

In particular, the architects looked to the mid-century architecture of Venice Beach in Los Angeles, the Palm Springs' houses of Albert Frey, and Palm Desert sunsets.

Set out over 75 square metres, the 51-seat restaurant is headed up by a curved fluted glass bar that lines the back wall.

The back of the bar is clad in aluminium while overhead a retro lightbox sign that displays the menu wraps around the top.

The fluted glass bar reflects light across the restaurant

"The place is conceived as an architectural parenthesis set in the Citadium; a roadside diner whose bar is clad in crenellated aluminium like a longhaul truck crossing the United States," said CUT Architectures.

"The back bar is dressed in embossed stainless steel with a radiant pattern that increases the reflections."

Seating is laid out over a series of classic diner booths with banquette seating, as well as a series of tall bar tables and stools.

The booths are positioned along the entrance to the department store and lined with large circular glass panels, lit by rows of warm neon tubes that fade from yellow to orange and pink.

Sun-like panels were placed at the ends of tables for privacy

Designed to recall the setting sun on the Pacific Ocean, the panels provide privacy for diners and create a visual boundary between the restaurant and the rest of the department store.

"To achieve the specific hues and quality of light we wanted we used old school signage neon tubes instead of LED lights," the studio told Dezeen.

Sunset hues reflect off the surfaces

The bases of the taller tables are made from large steel cylinders lacquered in a faded yellow hue.

The cylinders pierce through glossy white circular tabletops to create planter centrepieces that are filled with arid vegetation native to the Californian desert.

Other sunset-informed eatery designs include designer Yota Kakuda's sunset-hued counter installed within a Tokyo cheese tart shop.

While in a Hong Kong cafe, architecture firms Studio Etain Ho and Absence from Island pay homage to Australia's spectacular sunsets with a terracotta colour scheme and semi-circular forms.

Photography is by Romain Laprade.

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