Charity: water Close
nestle chocolate museum

Culture, Design: nestle chocolate museum

Posted by Alice Muhling on May 28, 2008 | 4 COMMENTS

Despite the international reputation of chocolate-producing countries such as Switzerland and Belgium, the first people known to have made chocolate were in fact from Mexico and South America. How appropriate, then, that Nestle’s new chocolate factory has been built in Mexico. Based in Paseo Tollocan and dressed in the same ruby rich red of the Nestle logo, the origami-inspired shape of the factory is certainly hard to miss. By combining the chocolate factory, a museum, a viewing deck, a shop and theatre (complete with seats that resemble pieces of chocolate), the uber modern space melds commercial, retail and tourist spaces into one unique building. Fronted by a huge glass-panelled facade bearing the distinctive Nestle logo, the building allows natural light to flood the inside space. Inside, the building is decked out in solid, sparkling white with sparse punches of colour and lit by strips of fluorescent lighting, which follow the contours of the angled interior. Designed by Mexican architect Michel Rojkind and his team at Rojkind Arquitectos, the building went from first sketch to final finishing touches in a record-breaking two months. The striking structure itself is enough to draw you in, but with the added allure of chocolate …irresistible!

 
  • http://www.urbangrind.com.au Morgan Daly

    mmm… anyone else feel like chocolate?

  • Alice

    Always! One journalist likened the building to a partially unwrapped KitKat and the more I look at it …

  • Yogi

    I like chocolate, just not Nestle. Sorry guys, as I hate to put a negative slant on this story, but I feel compelled to add some context. I see this only as propaganda PR by Nestle. The company has been on the hit-list by many groups regarding some widely expressed unethical practices of promoting milk-formula, especially in under-developed countries, which includes Mexico.

    The standard take on artificial milk is that it can harm babies because it does not contain the natural antibodies which a mother’s milk provides. It is also extremely expensive, so that in many poor countries people dilute it too much to make it last longer, which causes malnutrition. In addition, the poor quality of water in many of these areas causes babies fed on substitutes to develop lethal diarrhoea and infections. UNICEF suggests that “A bottle fed child is 25 times more likely to die from diarrhoea than a breast fed child where water is unsafe.” Mothers who do not breastfeed will stop producing milk, making the bad choice to use artificial milk irreversible.

    A WHO International Code governing the marketing of artificial baby milk, drawn up in 1981 and agreed by 118 countries, says breastfeeding should be promoted above all other products and that leaflets and labels relating to breast milk substitutes should do nothing to undermine this.

    Article 9.2 of the WHO code states: “Neither the container nor the label should have pictures of infants, nor should they have other pictures or text which may idealize the use of infant formula.”
    Nestlé complies with the ‘Breast is best’ statement requirement, but in many countries it adds text.

    In Mexico as an example, the added text: Breast is best and…(Nan HA): “Can be used from birth since it contains all nutrients required by the infants for adequate growth.”

    “Breast feeding declined rapidly between 1960-70 as the formula milk market expanded, and in Mexico it declined from 100% to 40%.

    Meg and I were witness to how powerful their lobby group is, when we were in the Philippines in July 2006. The Filipino government was to put into force some new Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) to restrict marketing practices used to boost formula sales.

    In protest over the IRR, the Pharmaceutical and Health Care Association of the Philippines (PHAP) representing three main US formula companies (Abbott Ross, Mead Johnson and Wyeth), Gerber (now owned by Swiss NOVARTIS) and other international pharmaceutical giants, took the Filipino government to court. In July, the Supreme Court declined PHAP’s application for a temporary restraining order to stop the IRR from coming into effect. Within a month, however, on August 15, just 4 days after the President of the US Chamber of Commerce, in a leaked letter, warned President Arroyo of “the risk to the reputation of the Philippines as a stable and viable destination for investment” if she did not “re-examine this regulatory decision”, the Supreme Court, overturned its own decision by granting a temporary restraining order in favour of PHAP.

    The added text in the Philippines: I’m having a quick look on the internet but can’t see it….it was something like “with added Brain Building Blocks”. Just to cite another example, “a card found in a doctor’s office in Xianyang promotes Nan infant formula with the text: “Added DHA/AA makes the formula closer to breastmilk and promotes the development of the baby’s brain”. In advertisements in Malaysia Nestlé claims its Lactogen formula provides optimal brain development and visual acuity.

  • Alice

    Dear Yogi,

    Thank you for your feedback on the article. You make some good points. I wrote it as a celebration of the creative design of the Mexican architects, Rojkind Arquitectos, rather than a promotion of Nestle and I hope this comes across.

    Several articles about the building (including http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/nestle-building-mexico/1787 and http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/architecture/Nestle-Chocolate-Museum/), state that the idea for the unique structure was actually the brainchild of the architects rather than Nestle, who originally just wanted to renovate the existing viewing gallery. Michel Rojkind took their idea and expanded it into an entire re-working of the building and into the unique space that it is today. Certainly, Nestle has received some great publicity as a result.

    Having said that, I appreciate your insight into Nestle’s apparent flaunting of the UN’s rulings regarding the promotion of milk-formula, which I certainly wouldn’t condone. It definitely makes me think twice about my next chocolate purchase.