Move beyond

Beyond the working world

Marketing professionals advise taking a company claim seriously as a matter of principle. This was also the intention of TK Elevator, a global elevator manufacturer, with its own: “move beyond. When it was planning for its new headquarters near Düsseldorf Airport, where a six-story building would house 400 employees, it went without saying that it didn’t want to go standard with the interior either.

The commissioned planners from sbp supported this premise wholeheartedly, because the task of being able to design 9,600 square meters of office space in a quality that aimed to go “beyond the working world” seemed appealing. The basis for this was an interior concept that is fundamentally interested in bright, spacious and flexible spaces.

Holistic concept

The heterogeneous and dynamic office landscape based on the principle of variety, the intention of which was to allow a variety of perspectives in the space, led to the idea of using meandering floor plans and furnishing variants individually related to each department. Emphasis was placed on spatial activity, which means that different room modules support employees in modulating their communication intensity in the sense of individual activity-based working: from concentrated quiet work to teamwork in smaller and larger groups.

So-called “Home Zones” were combined with a “Shared Desk” principle, made possible by a high degree of standardization, both in terms of furnishings and modern technical IT and media equipment. Open social meeting areas on all floors complement the canteen and cafeteria and provide a high quality of stay and communication for informal exchange.

The overriding principle of the planning was a holistic design concept that also takes sustainability and energy efficiency into account. In terms of the quality of life of employees, for example, this is expressed in the fact that charging stations are provided not only for e-cars but also for e-bikes, as well as a pilot project for bikesharing. Those who ride to work on the strenuous classic bike can use showers and changing rooms: move … beyond.

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

Kim Marc Bobsin: For us, the term “New Work” first of all summarizes many location-independent facets around the topic of people and work: a field of tension from organization to structure to content to communication methods and ultimately to the places where productivity is ideally spatially favored. Many of these things are influenced and controlled by factors of individual and digital life and work.

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

When it comes to sustainability, we think first and foremost about its meaningfulness and not about mere actionism or even a marketing effect. Durability and regional sourcing are the first important criteria. Many others are related to the development of closed-loop concepts. There are currently no holistic answers to the question of a true closed-loop system for products and materials in interior design, but there are many interesting approaches that we are pursuing.

Is it possible to respond to the home office trend in office design, or should we make a clear distinction between private and office interiors?

There are things that make more sense in the office, and there are activities that can be carried out in a more concentrated way in the home office. We focus on promoting the respective strengths of a location and thus further strengthening its justification. An office should focus intensively on the topic of (hybrid) communication and also strengthen the soul of a brand, whereas the home office should focus on the topics of ergonomics and technology connection.