Office Landscape

Campus of ideas

“Work Landscape” is how one could describe the spatial distribution of the uses and subsidiaries of the international consulting company Accenture in Munich: in three buildings and on six floors. In the course of a dynamic three-year development process, CBA Clemens Bachmann Architects arranged a working environment for 2,900 employees on a total area of approximately 14,000 square meters in the “Campus of Ideas – Neue Balan” quarter by means of a kind of urban master plan. The idea was to design specifically designed office spaces like characteristic city quarters – with communication zones at the respective connecting points of the three buildings.

In the form of a “plaza,” they function as informal workplaces; in the form of a “park,” they are recreation areas. Everything is accessed via the “Connectspace” for employees and guests, which is located on the first floor of the main building. It is equipped with a deli, an informative LED wall and a showroom. Adjacent to this is the “Campus Max”, a large multifunctional room.

Recreation and creativity

Terraces assigned to the ground and top floors complement the program with open spaces for recreation and creative breaks. On the one hand, the design of the multifaceted office world followed the space-creating parameters of the architecture and the historic industrial location – industrial materials such as wood, expanded metal or Heraklith panels were used for large-scale wall, floor and ceiling cladding.

On the other hand, Accenture was given a unifying company-specific interior design that works primarily with activating fresh color tones, which can be found in the emphatically soft and comfortable furniture and the room-differentiating glass walls. Different atmospheres and characters are also created by large pieces of furniture, curtains, varying floor surfaces or individually designed, acoustically effective wall sections, such as in the phone boxes.

What do you consider to be the fundamental qualities of a good workplace?

Clemens Bachmann: Workplaces have changed a lot in recent decades. Ergonomics, acoustics, lighting, haptics, flexibility and sustainability are aspects that must be in harmony in modern workplace design.

Do you see any comparability in interior design for living and for working?

Living and working worlds are mixing more and more. Home offices are turning the private environment into a workplace, while office space is becoming a place for people to get together and exchange ideas. Interior design must take these requirements into account. In terms of interior design, the modern workplace environment increasingly resembles living rooms and residential lounges, which offer the opportunity to retreat and relax in addition to working.

Which functional aspects do you consider to be the decisive ones in the future development of workspaces?

Flexibility and creativity! The Covid pandemic showed how quickly modern working environments must be able to change in the future. Due to the high proportion of home offices, office space can be reduced. Size reduction or expansion, restructuring, reorganization and the short-term adaptation of floor plans are fundamental functional requirements of future workspaces.