Productive in Kreuzberg

Design raumkontor Innenarchitektur
Location Berlin, Germany
A workspace for creativity and innovation

Inspiration may not be everything, but it is arguably one of the fundamental phenomena of our creativity and innovative capacity. Companies have known this for a long time, which is why they no longer outsource these services exclusively to their research departments or a small circle of leading managers. No, they want to benefit from the potential of everyone in the company or – from a different perspective – give all employees the chance to contribute their own ideas to the joint product. For this purpose, the possibilities of architecture are used more and more often, as was the case with the design of a company headquarters of the adesso Group, a consulting and IT services company, which was entrusted to the team of raumkontor.

The typical location in urban Berlin-Kreuzberg was to be taken into account in a powerful and vital way. The core area was identified as the most inspiring type of space for many people: for some people it is a place where thoughts can wander over a good cup of coffee, for others it is a place for socializing and communicative exchange over food and drink. At adesso in Kreuzberg, this generously sized zone within the office complex is called “Bistro HERTA”. The planners worked with storytelling and generated a lifestyle ambience that manages the balancing act between relaxation and tension, sending creative and social impulses without distracting from the actual reason for staying.

The wall design got its uniqueness in the form of a collage-like composition of posters, stickers and overpaintings, featuring personalities such as the eponymous curry sausage inventor Herta Heuwer or pop greats like David Bowie. This is where employees and guests alike fortify themselves and get inspired to do something new at events – every six to eight weeks, for example, everyone gets together for a big breakfast followed by exciting talks.

And where is work done in the classical sense? From a black seating island, a sculptural black steel staircase ascends to the upper office worlds, whose design is by no means less sophisticated: Flexibly structured office spaces generate a wide variety of work zones with translucent fabric panels, while softly contoured functional cores made of warm-toned MDF material lie along the floor axis. Here you will find phone boxes and tea kitchens or meeting rooms.

"'HERTA' is the place in Kreuzberg where you meet friends - where you work."
— Andrea Weitz, Prof. Jens Wendland

What do you see as the defining qualities of a good workplace?

raumkontor: A workplace is: a lively melange of play and allusion, architectural clarity and casual materiality – the whole with wit and a delight in the unexpected. Always reconfigurable and thus open to the permanent change to which our working worlds are exposed.

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

Our living worlds are networked and overlap. As a “home away from home,” new working environments can therefore be charged with personality: Color and materiality may play a role and especially: attention to detail is necessary. Diversity of supply (conceptually and atmospherically) is enormously important: Even at home, we sit with the laptop at the kitchen table just as much as on the sofa or on the balcony.

Which material-related aspects are the most important for you in the future development of the Workspaces?

Our design is geared toward positive mental and ecological effects. Material develops different fields of force: It has an effect on us here and now: sensuality – well-being. And at the same time it is an imagination of the future: Experiment – Research.

Details
ClientAdesso SE Berlin
CityBerlin
CountryGermany
Architectsraumkontor Innenarchitektur
CompletionJuly 2022
SectorTech
Project typeNew Buliding
Gross floor area m26.600
Number of employees400
Solutions
Lighting-
Flooring-
Acoustics-
Workspace Furniture-
Conference Furniture-
Lounge Furniture-
Greenery-
Technology-
Gastronomy-

Floor Plans

Best workspaces initiators