Communicative Rooms

Communication and cooperation

At the beginning of the conception of the “IT Arena” was the examination of the question at which points in the work process and in what way creativity and innovation actually manifest themselves. In addition to many now automated or routine elements, New Work, which has to deal with complex tasks of the present and future, ultimately consists of “human thinking”.

Based on communication and cooperation, this is strengthened and promoted in personal interaction, but also through interior design. The client, Barmenia Versicherungen, called their strategy, implemented here in the building with reference to their core competencies, a “New Way Of Insurance”, and developed a spatially concentrated, novel working environment for it through Brust+Partner. One floor of the Barmenia headquarters was made available, where work and lifestyle are now to be combined in an area of around 1,500 square meters.

Zones

The new office landscape – which was created by merging numerous individual offices into one open-plan space – is made up of various interconnected open spaces, between which there are zones for concentrated work, retreat, meetings and creative relaxation. And such a landscape has different regions, which the planners created by means of alternating textures on wall and floor surfaces as well as the seating furniture. You’ll find oak wood, velvet, leather, textured or coated ceramics, glass or steel. Wallpaper and carpeting use varying patterns as well as foil cuts that reflect references to digital technology and pop culture, making the floor experience very lively and intentionally stimulating for both visitors and everyday users.

As a main feature of the “IT Arena,” the interior designers used levels elevated and differentiated by 17 to 35 centimeters at several positions, where functional focal points with an overview of the surroundings are located. On these surfaces and around them, at the flexibly usable workplaces, thinking, which was the point from the beginning of the redesign, is freed up and can be led directly to a result digitally everywhere via fast WLAN – just as it should be for an IT landscape.

As a designer, how would you define the term “New Work” briefly and succinctly?

Siegmund Dumm: Space + time for communication, co-laboration + interaction in a life-affirming environment.

Currently, there is a lot of talk about sustainability: Do you have a basic approach to it?

What looks like wood is wood to us. What looks like stone is stone with us. What looks like steel is steel for us. If we then dispense with fashionable frills, we’ve already achieved a lot in terms of sustainability.

Is it possible to react to the home office trend in office design, or should there be a clear distinction between private and office interiors?

Absolutely react. This sense of security is exactly what people are looking for. And if we want employees to enjoy coming back to the office from the home office, then it should be clear to everyone that separating the two worlds will have exactly the opposite effect. By the way – we’ve been living this way for over 30 years.