contact office magazine #28

Issue 28 

Welcome to the age of the 

(artificially) intelligent office. 

Open units instead of open space. 

Office climate conference. 

Are you sitting comfortably? Stand up!

If you’re saying AI, you 

also have to say EQ. 

Concepts such as “robo advisor”, “big data” or “artificial intelligence” 

make many people feel uneasy. This is what we are 

tackling intensively in the latest issue of our magazine with the 

topic of digitisation vs. emotional intelligence (EQ) and showing 

that a gradual implementation of artificial intelligence in 

the everyday office can really bring about opportunities. 

Of course, with all new opportunities, the question that 

springs to mind is whether there are even abilities left that we, 

as humans, still have over the machines: Learn more on page 8. 

In the article, “Open units instead of open space”, we present 

innovative office designs which can be adjusted ideally to the 

needs of employees in the age of digitisation. As the quality 

of activity-based working is not just based on a good working 

climate, but also on a perfect room climate, we have summoned 

the “Office Climate Conference” on page 13. Here, 

five demands are presented which you should observe for a 

pleasant room climate in the office. 

Because our love for the office also goes through the stomach, 

we are tackling the good, but not at all old, canteen. This isn’t 

just a place to provide nourishment any more, for example, 

for our clients Koenig & Bauer AG. It is a meeting place and a 

place of retreat to motivate and inspire us. 

And because we think a lot of inspiration and curiosity, we 

visited the Uber head office in far-off Hong Kong and cast 

a curious glance over a desk at Frankfurt architecture office 

schneider+schumacher. Inspiring reading is guaranteed! 

Welcome to the age of the (artificially) intelligent office ............ 04 

Human competence vs. artificial intelligence .............................. 08 

Open units instead of open space ............................................... 10 

Office climate conference ............................................................ 13 

Reference story: Koenig & Bauer AG ........................................... 14 

New work: new break ................................................................. 16 

Something useful for the office day-to-day ................................. 19 

Offices from around the world: the UBER 

head office in Hong Kong ............................................................ 20 

What's on your desk, schneider+schumacher? ........................... 23 

The new efficiency: working while standing ............................... 24 

Showroom ................................................................................... 26 

Markus Wiesner 

Publisher: Wiesner-Hager Möbel GmbH, Linzer Straße 22, A-4950 Altheim, T +43/(0)7723/460-0, altheim@wiesner-hager.com, 

www.wiesner-hager.com, thinknewwork.com; Design/Editing: Wiesner-Hager, plenos creative; Layout: plenos creative, plenos.at; 

guest author: Wojciech Czaja; typing and printing errors reserved; 05/2019. 

2 contact 

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Office concepts 

Welcome to the 

age of the (artificially) 

intelligent office. 

Artificial intelligence has long since found its way into the office day-to-day. But watch out: Experts give 

rise to concerns that we must not neglect our classic human abilities such as touch, communication 

and emotional competence during the increasing digitisation. One requires the other. At the end we 

ask ourselves: What effect does everything have on the design of our workspaces? 

“How can I help?”, 

asks Robert. “Alright. 

I will show 

you the detailed 

plan for pillar 

5.3 in the second 

basement garage.” 

The plan is 

barely open, and 

it transpires that 

the galvanised 

steel vehicle bumper 

buffer device 

has been produced 

incorrectly and 

correspondingly 

installed incorrectly. 

“I am sending the 

fault pictures that were 

just produced with your 

digital signature directly to 

the construction office. Should 

I order a replacement part? Alright. 

I am ordering a replacement bumper 

buffer device component for pillar 5.3 in 

the second basement garage. Delivery in ten 

working days. Can I do anything else for you?” 

Robert wears turquoise overalls and an orange construction 

helmet on his head. He also has an irresistible 

smile like in a toothpaste advert and a pleasant, sympathetic-sounding 

voice like an audiobook. “Robert 

is our latest development for simplifying production, 

assembly and service processes on the construction 

site,” says Benjamin Schwärzler, Managing Director 

of Vienna-based company Tablet Solutions, as well as 

founder and inventor of the digital 

construction site assistant 

WorkHeld, which is already 

relied upon by companies 

such as Siemens, 

Daimler and Austrian 

cable car manufacturer 

Doppelmayr. 

With Robert, 

workers on the 

construction site 

don’t have to 

type and the 

reporting 

and 

remedy of faults can now be achieved much more 

quickly and efficiently than before. It means that we 

can avoid massive friction losses in communication 

and in construction site operation.” Aside from fault 

management, the WorkHeld areas of application 

cover material and system management, construction 

site logistics, appliance service, time and expenses 

recording as well as any form of automatic reports 

from structure construction and facility management. 

Thanks to artificial intelligence, the app is capable of 

independent learning, according to the manufacturer. 

So, the question inevitably presents itself: Will Robert 

have one day replaced humans? 

Experts are expecting the use of artificial intelligence 

(AI) to result in around 48 billion Euro of additional 

production and around 38 billion Euro of additional 

added value by 2025 in Austria alone. “Visibility and 

connectivity are the key characteristics of a smart factory,” 

says Roland Sommer, Managing Director of the 

Industry 4.0 platform, founded in 2015, which has set 

the goal of making the best use of the new technological 

developments and innovations in digitisation and 

shaping the transition for society at large in a socially 

sustainable manner. “The employees have access to 

schedules, quality data, stock statuses and demand 

alterations at all times. The individual departments 

of the company can be connected with each other 

electronically to collaborate and increase productivity 

and efficiency.” 

And yet, most people are afraid when the subject of 

AI crops up. According to a study in Germany, 41 

percent of employees fear a threat to the survival of 

humanity because of the new applications of AI, 25 

percent are afraid that intelligent computers will take 

their jobs, and 17 percent believe that their privacy is 

under threat. “Here, the fear of world domination by 

robots and a digital precarity is based on uncertainty 

of everything new, and actually, this is something that 

applies to every innovation,” writes German businessman 

and SPD representative for medium-sized 

businesses Harald Christ in a guest commentary in 

the Handelsblatt newspaper. “When the railway was 

invented, academics believed that humans were in 

danger of mental disorders at speeds of more than 30 

kilometres per hour. Even the car was treated with 

hostility at first. Terrified citizens dug up roads or 

stretched cables across them at the end of the 19th 

century to prevent the new motor carriages.” But 

looking back, says Christ, no innovation has ended in 

a catastrophe yet. No innovation has ever reduced our 

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© Shutterstock


wellbeing. And no innovation has brought about mass 

unemployment. In order for the disruption currently 

taking place to be an advantage to humans and not 

cause harm, we require a corresponding analysis of the 

topic. “The most important thing is to remove the negative 

sting from digitisation and artificial intelligence 

and to recognise the transition as an opportunity and 

support,” says organisation and work psychologist 

Bettina Wegleiter from Vienna. “Ideally, AI takes 

over routine activities that no one really wants to do: 

organisation, commercial tasks, number and data 

checks. This frees up resources for new, more efficient 

and more highly qualified jobs in the company. But 

yes, of course it will be necessary to swim with the 

current here. If you don’t participate, sooner or later, 

you will lose contact.” This also corresponds with the 

appraisal of Guido Zimmermann, Senior Economist 

at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW): “The 

biggest problem will not be that we run out of work, 

but that the type of work will change, and we have to 

adjust our behaviour to this in good time.” 

The biggest changes are to be expected in manufacturing 

industries, in the TMT sector (technologies, media, 

telecommunication) as well as in fintech. Today, a 

large proportion of investment advice has already been 

taken over by robo advisors, meaning by algorithms 

which calculate the best form of investment for the 

end customer regarding duration, investment amount 

and readiness to assume risk, and automatically trigger 

the corresponding investments. Similar behaviour is 

seen for complex legal cases, job application processes 

or online customer service, for example. Online 

retailer Zalando have saved themselves the cost of 

250 marketing specialists and replaced them with 

algorithms. And while China Merchants Bank used to 

employ around 7,000 workers to take care of customer 

enquiries, one single robot now handles up to two 

million communication cases per day automatically. 

IT programmes entered our working day a long time 

ago, such as Datev (software cloud for tax consultants, 

auditors and solicitors), Ross (assistance system 

for court judgements), Amelia (Q&A in customer 

service), Xander (emotion recognition for people) and 

even Cogito, which is programmed to study human 

behaviour, assess emotions and indicate to employees 

in call centres when they are becoming impatient or 

unfriendly. Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s 

Home will be able to give you a proper telling-off in 

future. Very spooky. An OECD study published in 

2018 reaches the conclusion that in developed countries, 

every second job will be significantly affected by 

automation. From today’s perspective, 14 percent of 

all jobs will supposedly be “highly automatable” and 

therefore at particular risk. In the USA, the proportion 

is said to be even higher, according to a detailed 

study by economist Carl Benedikt Frey and computer 

scientist Michael Osborne. A tool also developed 

by the OECD now helps employees to forecast the 

effects on their own job. An initial self-test reveals the 

gravest of future scenarios for copywriters and journalists. 

Thanks, future! 

“The development cannot be stopped, but for the sharing 

of functions between man and machine to work 

well, careful support is required,” explains Christian 

Blind. For quite a while now, the Salzburg-based work 

psychologist has been working with computer-assisted 

intellectual work (in German: rechnergestützte geistige 

Arbeit or RGA) and its effects on everyday office 

work. “You cannot just slap an Alexa down in front 

of an employee and wait to see what happens. When 

implementing human-centred technologies, we must 

use tools which allow a gradual appropriation of innovations 

in a way which is transparent and comfortable 

for the person.” Some standards such as ISO 14915 

and DIN EN ISO 13407 should standardise usability 

engineering and the user-friendliness of new software. 

“Because,” says Blind, “at the beginning, most people 

do not know all the things that they do not know.” 

In the end, the question is: What effects does AI 

actually have on the physical form of our workspaces? 

In Switzerland, this is precisely the question which 

students at colleges and universities are confronted 

with intensively in their syllabus today. “If we don’t 

raise awareness, the topic can tip over into fear and 

rejection,” says Sibylla Amstutz, Professor of Technology 

and Architecture and head of the Architecture 

and Interior Architecture research group at Lucerne 

University of Applied Sciences and Arts. “This is why 

we are trying to educate our students in such a way 

that they can integrate the new technologies naturally 

into their expertise. We are researching in an application-oriented 

manner and advise companies in change 

management processes and implementing Scrum, new 

technologies and artificial intelligence.” 

The most important finding from our joint workshops: 

“Within the context of increasing digitisation, 

there is a longing for physical, haptic, perceptible and 

emotionally moving spaces – and this is a clear countertendency 

to the digital, artificial and virtual developments,” 

says Amstutz. “The individual workspace, 

as we know it, is being forced more and more into the 

background. Even classic meeting rooms with a cleandesk 

policy will lose their importance in the future. 

Instead, new collective and communication spaces 

will come into existence where, like with Scrum, usual 

creative, project-related traces can be left on the tables, 

on the walls, in the rooms. It is a question of places of 

interpersonal encounter – with all the emotional and 

physical presence.” 

The professor has a nice anecdote at down pat: In the 

earliest projects which she supported in the course 

of a digital change, the young colleagues tended to 

want brighter colours, more natural materials 

and a generally cosier work setting than the 

predominantly older colleagues who had 

been with the company for a longer 

time but had fewer points of contact 

with new technologies. “In one 

of our projects, there was even a 

small team of very young people 

who walked through the office 

each day and tended to the plants 

together. This gives us hope in 

the event of artificial intelligence, 

doesn’t it?” 

Wojciech Czaja 



Office life 

Human competence 

vs. artificial intelligence: 

Where we still have an 

advantage over machines. 

The digitisation of the work environment is moving forward at a fast pace. The automation 

of knowledge work means that in times of big data, intelligent IT systems 

are increasingly able to make decisions requiring analytical skills better than we 

humans ourselves. And in a reliable manner, in real time. As a consequence, many 

typical jobs are being replaced by digital innovations. Of course, this triggers the 

question of whether there will even be areas where humans can pit themselves 

against the machines. And which professions will even still exist over the next 

few years. 

Professor Helmut Karner, business consultant and 

co-founder of Föhrenbergkreis, believes that, in spite 

of automation, our work will not come to an end. He 

sees the future of human competences in the development 

of concepts and creativity-enhancing areas: 

teamwork, emotions and empathy. “In a few areas, 

humans are still superior to machines, particularly in 

creativity: Emotional or typical human competences 

will play a very central role in the future.” 

From an academic point of view, Dr Birgit Feldhusen, 

head of the “Agile Organisations & Collective Leadership” 

course at Danube University Krems: “Artificial 

intelligence cannot question its own way of thinking. 

It further develops in the mental framework that we 

give it. However, it could possibly make available 

applications which make it easier for us humans to 

question our ways of thinking.” In the acquisition 

and optimisation of these competences, artificial 

intelligence can be helpful, but it will not succeed in 

possessing them itself. 

More specifically, the two authors, Adam J. Gutstein, 

Vice President of business consultancy company PwC, 

and his colleague John Sviokla, head of the thinktank 

“The Exchange” at PwC, present in detail the superior 

human abilities. In Harvard 

Business Manager ( January 

2019 issue), the two present 

seven competences which 

humans master better than machines 

both now and will do so 

in the foreseeable future as well. 

Communication 

Storytelling in bullet points: People 

can be moved to action with stories. 

Above all when we use an effective 

communication cocktail made up of 

explanations, facts, rhetoric and science, 

and appeal to the emotions of the listener. 

Think about Steve Jobs who presented the 

first iPod with the promise of 1000 songs in 

your trouser pocket. The ability to stimulate an 

image-rich language and the power of imagination 

is part of human nature and machines will 

struggle to mimic it. 

Contents 

Successful communication requires 

the corresponding content. If you 

are an expert in your field, you 

are well ahead of the machine 

and are always in demand. Even 

if you can find out everything 

these days using a search engine, 

the demand for experts is greater 

than ever. The difference lies in 

the dynamics of the subject area: 

A human expert can combine 

contents and specialist knowledge, 

and thus pass on new 

knowledge to others. 

Context 

Automated systems can only take 

action and make decisions within 

the framework defined by the 

developer. They will only recognise 

connections that are known to them. 

This extensive understanding of context 

can, as before, only be perceived 

and assessed by a human. The creative 

innovation of humans is required to 

expand this framework. 

Emotional competence 

There have now been experiments where 

artificial intelligence attempts to interpret 

human emotions. But the human feelings 

are a complex topic – it becomes even more 

complex when interpersonal relationships 

and group dynamics come into play. It is 

almost impossible for artificial intelligence 

to develop emotional 

competence in order to 

recognise emotions 

in others and to react to them accordingly. It can 

neither engage in emotionally complex situations, nor 

persuade other people. 

Teaching 

Computer support has contributed greatly to improving 

the quality of education. However, machines 

cannot individually cater to the potential of the 

employee and support this. In personal collaboration, 

points of weakness or gaps in knowledge can be better 

identified and counteracted accordingly. 

Relationships 

Relationships can be complicated, but first and foremost, 

they give us humans support, confirmation and 

self-confidence. We usually maintain our strongest 

relationships with our family and friends. Professionally, 

we talk about networks – mainly more superficial 

than in a private setting, but still essential for 

success. Are virtual contacts on Facebook, LinkedIn, 

etc. not enough? Not a chance: The best networks and 

relationships are still maintained personally. 

Moral compass 

Even if machines are efficient, there are no algorithms 

which decide according to ethical values. Artificial 

intelligence is refused the ability to make a moral decision 

because of a lack of emotional competence. For 

humans – above all those in management positions – a 

well-functioning moral compass is becoming more 

and more important in a world full of automated 

processes. 


© Shutterstock 


Office Life concepts 

Open units 

instead of open space. 

© Visualization: 

Studio Perspektiv, Prague 

The concept of open space is particularly fashionable just now. For some, it is an exciting vision of 

a digitised work environment. For others, it sounds more like a dangerous threat, equal to that of 

open-plan offices and desk sharing. So how much openness does a contemporary office need? A 

critical analysis between errors and misdirection. 

their computers, huddling under their headphones 

and silently completing their work. 

So, does this mean that we are moving back towards 

the traditional cubicle office? With a large desk and 

opulent linear metres of storage space? Hardly, even 

if the cubicles are, as before, the most popular office 

design among employees. According to the Fraunhofer 

institute, just under 50 percent of people still work 

in classic offices with cubicle structures. Apart from 

that, each change is initially viewed with a sceptical 

eye. As before, the cubicle office is the manifestation of 

hierarchy, status and the claim of ownership for many 

employees. 

Yet even in the classic cell office, the negative aspects 

are also serious: In many company areas, the rigid 

cubicle structure prevents modern, collaboration-oriented 

working processes. There are also high structural 

costs and poor spatial efficiency to consider – and this, 

as stated above, with an actual workplace presence of 

barely more than 30 to 50 percent. 

One-person cubicles completely support concentrated 

working; with two-person or four-person cubicles, the 

situation is completely different: Here, communication 

and the associated noise is perceived as even more 

disruptive than the base level of noise in open room 

structures. 

The paradox in the discussion “open plan versus cubicles” 

is that the presumed strengths of the respective 

office design are perceived in completely the opposite 

way in reality. 

© Visualization: 

Studio Perspektiv, Prague 

In order to come close to possible answers, we must 

first ask the question of where and how office workers 

actually work today. Not that they can be lumped 

together as one – a field sales employee 

has a completely different daily routine 

from a bookkeeper – but it is a fact 

that permanent workplaces on average 

are only used one third of the time during 

the course of a working week. We 

spend the other two thirds away from 

our (own) desk in meetings, breaks, 

co-working areas, working from home 

or travelling. We could even continue 

the list. Experts have coined the term 

“activity-based working”: We use 

the working locations which are best 

suited to our current activity. 

Cubicles or open plan: Which 

office design is better? 

“Now, this is definitely the wrong question,” says Bernhard 

Kern, Managing Director of Roomware Consulting 

– a company which deals with office development 

and design. “The right office design is determined by 

Employees 

are hiding behind 

their computers, 

huddling 

under their 

headphones and 

silently completing 

their 

work. 

the respective organisation and must suit the company 

culture. The decision about office design always goes 

together with the future ways of working.” 

Open-plan offices are very popular among 

many companies because, unsurprisingly, 

they are cheaper. A rule of thumb states that 

the area costs are around one third lower 

than for office buildings with classic cubicle 

structures. However, there are a lot of negative 

facets to this economic aspect in any 

case. Relabelling open plan as open space 

also doesn’t help. The problems with open 

space are known and are difficult to get under 

control. Noise irritation, disruptions to 

concentration and – something which may 

sound paradoxical as it’s currently sold as a 

great advantage – the impairment of communication: 

In a current Harvard study, it 

was established that personal conversations 

in open spaces, meaning open-plan offices, 

have reduced by up to 70 percent compared with 

small-structured offices. At the same time, digital 

communication via Messenger or email increased by 

67 percent. The result: Employees are hiding behind 

10 contact contact 11


Office life 

Open units bring communication and 

concentration into balance. 

In his book, “2025 – So arbeiten wir in der Zukunft” 

[This is how we work in the future], futurologist Sven 

Gabor Janszky assumes that in the future, there will be 

three essential room scenarios in office buildings: silent 

rooms for highly concentrated work, highly technological 

communication rooms for real and virtual meetings 

as well as co-working spaces which offer an ideal 

environment for collaboration. While the first two 

of these room scenarios are designed as classic cubicle 

solutions, co-working areas leave a great deal of leeway 

for organisation and design in the spatial implementation. 

Here, one thing can be observed most of the 

time: They are neither open plan nor cubicles. Experts, 

such as Prague architect Martin Stara, whose architecture 

office Studio Perspektiv specialises in new-work 

office designs, are talking about open units here. These 

are rescaled, small-structured yet open room areas 

which above all focus on collaboration: project rooms, 

libraries, work cafes, communication islands, retreat 

niches, team offices, lobbies, gardens, living rooms, etc.; 

the design implementation possibilities are incredibly 

diverse. Open units are the answer to activity-based 

working. They create the freedom to select the ideal 

working location for your activity. Here, the personalised 

desk only has a subordinate role. Storage space is 

even less important because notebooks and the cloud 

take on this function. 

Open units are an integrative component of an open 

room design, but structured into smaller, spatial units, 

divided and, depending on their purpose, more or 

less screened off, visually and acoustically. The unit 

concept, as we know from organisation theory, is also 

implemented spatially. The main advantage of these 

organisational units is the support offered to collaboration. 

In creative innovation processes, the units 

promote the openness of thought on one hand and on 

the other, the necessary seclusion to permit concentrated 

teamwork and project work. 

The costs argument still remains and the question 

of how to create the financial wiggle room for the 

additional open units. With the broad forgoing of expensive, 

space-intensive cubicle offices with the same 

rescaling of classic workplaces – whether it be through 

desk-sharing or savings from storage areas which are 

no longer required – it should easily be enough. 

We spend 90 percent of our lives in buildings – 

of which at least eight hours per day in an office. 

We know that a comfortable room climate 

affects our wellbeing, performance and ability 

to concentrate, and not least our health. The 

following guidelines are oriented towards the 

workplace regulations in Austria and Germany. 

The trend for open space offices doesn’t make 

the climate situation any simpler. However, a 

decisive criterion is the subjective perception 

of the employees. These five “demands” may 

help: 

We demand a comfortable 

room temperature. 

Ideally, the air temperature is at around 21 to 22° C. 

In the summer months, this can also increase to up to 

25° C as the temperature difference between indoors 

and outdoors should not be too high. Sun protection 

systems are frequently sufficient to regulate the temperature. 

But be sure to have these installed outdoors 

so that undesired heat exposure is prevented. If you 

are using an air-conditioning system, you should make 

sure that the temperatures are not too cold and that 

the filter is changed regularly. 

We need fresh air. 

Regular ventilation also cranks up the air circulation 

in the room and dispenses fresh air. The ideal air dynamics 

occur at 0.1 m/s. Draughts are frequently one of 

the causes of neck pain and tension. A high proportion 

of CO 2 

and particulate dust are the consequences of 

poor air circulation. This is why printers and photocopiers 

should be stored in closed-off rooms. 

© Shutterstock 

Office 

climate 

conference. 

We don’t like it too dry. 

Humidity presents ideal conditions 

at a value of 50 percent. A healthy 

range involves a fluctuation of 

between 40 and 70 percent. Heating 

and the use of IT appliances lead 

to dry air because they heat up. This 

irritates the eyes and mucous membranes 

and increases the risk of catching a 

cold. Simple air humidifiers can contribute 

to increased wellbeing. 

We like to have something green. 

Plants aren’t just a part of aesthetic office design. They 

also make a significant contribution to a healthier 

working environment. They improve the air quality, increase 

air humidity, filter dust and break down harmful 

substances. 

We demand collegial consideration. 

Different people, various feelings. In every team, 

group or open-plan office, we are all asked to ensure a 

comfortable climate. For example, only small snacks 

are allowed at your desk, no strong-smelling meals. 

Equally, before ventilating, you should agree this with 

your colleagues. This doesn’t just create a better room 

climate, but a better working climate too. 


Reference story 

KOENIG & BAUER AG: 

from the canteen to the modern 

company restaurant. 

© Client: Koenig & Bauer AG 

Design /planning / implementation: archicult - breunig architects 

Photograph: Peter Becker GmbH 

semi-transparent screens. The highlight is the glazed 

front cooking area of the counter, where the guests can 

watch their lunch being prepared live. 

The overall area impresses with its warm and robustlooking 

wooden floors which harmonise with the 

new lighting concept. As a consequence, the room 

achieves a pleasant, almost cheerful atmosphere which 

is further emphasised with matching furniture. The 

organisation of furniture also has creative eye-catchers 

in the individual areas – the red cafeteria chairs are 

particularly striking and invite you to spend some time 

there. 

Efficiency and flexibility played a large role in the planning 

of the company restaurant. Wiesner-Hager made 

a valuable contribution here with the furnishings: The 

yuno stacking tables, for example, allow to rearrange 

the room quickly. The room can be repurposed into an 

event space at any time. In this case, the nooi cafeteria 

chairs serve as row seating, or they can be stacked and 

stored away to create more space for more guests. 

In the sense of corporate architecture, the colours and 

materials used reflect the image and core competences 

of Koenig & Bauer AG and convey the history and 

dynamics of the company. 

The scent of fresh meals and strong coffee as well as the relaxed and casual atmosphere would suggest 

that we are in a cosy restaurant. Because the oldest printing press manufacturers in the world, 

Koenig & Bauer AG, has turned the new canteen into a feel-good oasis for their employees. Koenig 

& Bauer has thus spoken out against the typical canteen flair and declared themselves in favour of 

the ambience of a new food service. 

Koenig & Bauer, the traditional printing press manufacturer, 

is characterised by a 200-year company history. 

The number 2 on the global market is the employer 

of around 5700 workers around the world. Of this, 

around 1700 employees work in the headquarters in 

Würzburg. The modernisation of the canteen is part of 

a technical and aesthetic optimisation programme across 

the whole company premises, which has now been 

progressing for two years. Together with architectural 

office archicult, Koenig & Bauer has devised a project 

which suits the development of the company towards 

New Work. 

The aim of the new company restaurant was to create 

an architectonically appealing place where employees 

from all departments of the main factory can meet 

each day and talk about work or their personal lives. 

“It was important to us to create a place of identification 

for all employees – no matter whether they work 

in production, administration or development,” says 

Roland Breunig from Würzburg architectural office 

archicult. 

In the planning stage, the employees were included 

in the form of a survey in order to better meet their 

needs. An important finding was the desire for different 

zones which were also implemented accordingly. 

There is a lounge area and a closed-off coffee corner. 

The actual eating area is also divided with plants and 

14 contact

Interior architecture 

The break room becomes a cafe. 

The canteen: a room for everyone. 

© Fill Gurten: Client: Fill Gurten – www.fill.co.at 

Architecture: Matulik – www.matulik.at; Photo: www.raumpixel.at 

New work: new break. 

How architecture transforms 

break room designs. 

The classic break room becomes a working cafe and 

represents a calm area for retreat and encounters. 

Here, the working café also asserts its claim on interior 

architecture and spatial arrangement. It is a place for a 

lunch with colleagues and there are various possibilities 

of withdrawing and drinking a coffee in peace. 

Combined with bar counters and tea kitchens, the 

working café loses the aura of a classic break room in 

the office. If you play with the characteristics of the 

existing rooms and individually adapt the type of furnishings, 

you can achieve the best possible advantage. 

Soft enclosures with screens can be appealing to the eye 

as well as useful for storage space. 

The working café is also a popular choice for the employees 

for occasional working. Some people consciously 

look for more lively places such as cafes or restaurants so 

that they can work in a more relaxed manner. 

The canteen is nothing new, but it’s an important 

place for regeneration. Mainly larger companies offer 

their employees affordable food in their own company 

restaurant. As well as its primary function of “nourishment”, 

the canteen also contributes to relaxation 

and promoting social communication. Sausage and 

chips is no longer enough, however. Millennials above 

all demand sustainable and healthy food. The quality 

of the food, the design of the room and arrangement 

of the furniture in the canteen inevitably show how 

much the company values their employees. 

But the canteen can do even more: With a flexible 

room design, the dining area can be transformed for 

employee events, training or even presentations. With 

the conscious use of colours, materials, light, room 

climate and furniture, modest canteens are turned into 

multi-tasking living spaces. 

“Sometimes you need a little break so that 

you can see things differently.” This and many 

other phrases decorate the colourful calendar 

in the offices. However, it isn’t known among 

all employees how much truth lies behind these 

“phrases to make you think”. 

Breaks are an important and essential part of our motivation. 

If you treat your body and mind to a little peace 

regularly and recharge your batteries, you can concentrate 

better and prevent falling into a mental stupor. 

So, get away from your desk! And this is where it starts 

to get a little more complicated, because quite often, 

the suitable choice of room is lacking. We’ll show you a 

few possibilities of how to work regeneration into your 

spatial design. 


© Impact Hub Brno 

© Regnauer Fertigbau & Co. KG, Vitalbüros Seeon-Seebruck

Interior architecture 

Trend watching 

Something useful for 

the office day-to-day. 

Momentum: your personal 

dashboard. 

The middle zones are the focus. 

The poorly lit middle and edge zones of office 

building were barely given any attention before. 

Modern office planning is now addressing these more 

intensively. These zones can become actively designed 

meeting places with a relaxing character for a spontaneous 

exchange of ideas. Employers still frequently 

have concerns about too much comfort and a drop in 

efficiency. However, studies have proven the opposite: 

Attractively designed “random” encounter areas have 

a positive effect on the working day. A brief, informal 

exchange of ideas with colleagues can increase 

productivity. 

When designing middle zones, there are no limits to 

creativity. Depending on the possibility and space, 

these areas can become lounges, retreat niches and 

play areas with swings and table football. No matter 

how unconventionally the areas are designed, the aim 

is to bring employees closer together. The interior 

architecture can support these relaxed, casual atmospheres. 

Activity garden and outdoor meetings. 

Outdoor spaces and nature have a great influence on 

our wellbeing. A study conducted by Interface about 

employees in Europe proved that wellbeing and productivity 

increases by around 13 percent if the working 

environment incorporates natural elements. This 

is why companies and architects are also including the 

outdoor area more and more. A landscaped garden 

is ideal for movement-oriented leisure activities and 

also for walk & talk meetings. If the premises are not 

located in a green setting, a terrace or winter garden 

can also be established. Designed to be architecturally 

interesting with quieter and livelier areas, break times, 

the end of the working day and meetings can take 

place out of doors. 

New work also means finding new paths to regeneration. 

Constant reachability also requires spaces where 

employees have the opportunity to retreat. Employee 

break times must not be forgotten about in a sea of 

agility. 

To conclude, we can see regeneration spaces as a reflection 

of the company culture. They thus communicate 

a message to the outside world: The quality of their 

design shows how much the company values their 

employees and guests. However, these zones should 

absolutely achieve one thing – they must match the 

company culture, otherwise they seem insincere and 

will not be used. 

© Ford Motor Company Limited, UK 

Good morning, you look great today. 

– As well as a pleasant greeting, when 

the internet browser is opened, it 

can also display to-do lists, weather 

forecasts and inspirational quotes in 

the personalised Momentum tab. In 

addition, you can set reminders each 

time you open a new tab so that you 

can escape the tendency to the all too 

familiar procrastination. 

The digital Crock Pot. 

An old household appliance, adapted to the modern 

workplace: The digital slow-cooker from Crock-Pot 

makes it possible to prepare fresh meals during your 

lunch break without stress. Simply prepare your desired 

ingredients, add them to the slow-cooker and set 

the timer to around 20 minutes. Et voilà: Lunch for 

you and your colleagues is ready. Enjoy your meal! 

© Crock-Pot® 

© Shapr 

RAVPower 

RAVPower 

solar powerbank. 

With the portable solar powerbank, 

you really have no more excuses 

against moving your workplace outdoors 

in summer. Using power from the 

sun, two smartphones can be charged at the 

same time, and sufficient energy can be stored 

to charge the devices several times without the 

solar energy input. In this way, you don’t just avoid 

the problem of dead batteries, but also make a small 

contribution to environmental protection. 

© Momentum Dashboard Corp. 



Offices Life from around the world 

Travelling through Hong 

Kong with Gottfried Semper. 

The new Uber head office in Hong Kong is not just a refuge of tiles, graffiti art and captured light 

bulbs. Quite a few unusual car journeys into the past are also part of the concept by Bean Buro. 

Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui. The interdisciplinary architecture 

and design office specialises in furniture, product 

design and interior design. 

“The elements which helped us to allow the safety 

aspects fade into the visual background are very diverse 

and sometimes playful. Again and again, we cited 

various Hong Kong traditions and brought these back 

to life in numerous shapes and materials. And as far 

as the spatial base concept is concerned, we followed 

the teachings of the German architect and art theorist 

Gottfried Semper.” She refers to Semper’s concept of 

“structure and filling” as well as the idea he coined of 

“material enclosure as a barrier to the room”. According 

to this theory, the room structure appears in harder 

materials; the inner space on the other hand in consciously 

lighter materials which are soft to the touch. 

The theory is already manifest at the reception: While 

the room is decorated in traditional green and grey 

mosaic tiles, handmade in Hong Kong, the reception 

desk is presented with soft, beige upholstered leather. 

It’s not without reason that the material chosen here is 

to remind people of the interior of a brand-new BMW 

or Mercedes, according to Bean Buro. “Again and 

again,” says architect Lorène Faure, “you find analogies 

of mobility and automotive aesthetics in the Uber office, 

but also of the Hong Kong location and the often 

very old traditions which are typical here.” 

As well as the tiles on the wall, the upholstered fabrics 

and the deep maritime colours which are taken from 

the Hong Kong waterfront, you can also find many 

small details from history and from the Feng Shui 

school of thought which will provoke a smile: light 

woods, curved shapes, charming lamp cages above 

the temporary break tables in front of the window 

façade which are created to capture light instead of 

birds. “The stylised birdcages,” explains Faure’s partner, 

Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, “are a reference to the Hong 

Kong of the 19th century, when it was the custom to 

walk through the city with your own bird or to bring 

the cage to a tea ceremony or to a dim sum meal with 

others. We felt very inspired by this story.” In the fullness 

of the beautiful, anecdote-rich and often soulful 

interior details, the hard structure which the new Uber 

The lift doors have barely opened, the silvery shining 

glass wall has barely broken into view, and you are 

plunged into a dim, welcoming greenish-grey realm. 

Only the writing on the wall – four large, contoured 

block letters U, B, E and R made from fire regulationcompliant 

bent fluorescent tubes – gives you a clear 

indication that you haven’t landed in a swimming 

pool or some kind of underwater wellness temple, but 

in the new Hong Kong headquarters of the mobile 

driving service provider Uber, on the last floor of 

one of the office tower blocks which only came into 

being this year, but are highly coveted because of the 

spectacular view right in the pulsating business district 

of Causeway Bay. 

“Before, Uber had several smaller offices in Hong 

Kong which were scattered across the entire city,” says 

Lorène Faure. “With this head office, which currently 

houses 80 employees together in one location for the 

first time, the necessary steps for expansion should 

be set.” Up until today, there was no uniform, legally 

regulated solution for driving service providers and car 

rental services on call in Hong Kong. In the new premises, 

the globally active platform, which has 30,000 

registered drivers alone in Hong Kong, wants to work 

out the necessary plans for legalisation. And this endeavour 

is anything but easy. Only last year, Uber failed 

in its entry to the market in mainland China. As was 

reported in the Hong Kong Economic Journal a few 

months ago, the Californian company is speculating 

at regular intervals about whether to give up on the 

special administrative zone entirely. 

“As you can imagine, the Uber project wasn’t just a 

classic office design, but also an attempt to conceal 

the security measures applied here with regard to 

break-in protection, data security and confidentiality 

when handling highly sensitive information in the 

best way possible, and to design in such a way that an 

open, flexible and friendly working environment with 

interpersonal interaction is still possible,” says Faure. 

“Not an easy task!” Born in Paris, and having studied 

architecture with Sir Peter Cook, Faure is the head of 

Bean Buro, founded in 2013, along with her partner, 

All photos: © Courtesy of Bean Buro 


Offices from around the world 

09 

What's on your desk? 

© Schneider & Schumacher 

01 

03 

02 

08 

07 

04 

office is based on is lost from view – completely within 

the sense of Gottfried Semper. The communicative 

cornerstone of the office is the communal spaces such 

as the cafeteria with tea kitchen and small tables, the 

counter designed to allow people to have their break 

time alone in front of the window with a view of the 

Happy Valley racecourse and the large windowed 

conference room with 20-metre-long conference table 

and an in-situ wall design from Hong Kong graffiti 

artist Bao Ho. The black, white and blue motives show 

scenes from urban everyday life, sprinkled with Chinese 

mythical beings and zodiac animals such as cats, 

rabbits, dragons. 

The approximately 900 square metre office is completed 

with medium and small meeting rooms, tiled 

phone booths, comfortably upholstered me-places and 

diverse, informal we-places which are scattered around 

the whole office layout. The workplaces themselves 

are kept compact and mainly clustered into groups of 

six or eight desks, where employees sit opposite each 

other to allow communication. In an analogy to the 

Uber DNA, which is based on the idea of the sharing 

economy, sharing is also part of the basis of the office: 

All workplaces for the 80 employees who currently 

work there – if necessary, the office can be extended to 

accommodate up to 120 employees – are designed as 

shared desks for activity-based working. 

“The office plays with references from the city, from 

the history of the area and from the world of the 

sharing economy,” say both Bean bosses at the end of 

the discussion. “But in the end, the shape is a variable 

which can be changed and has the task of conveying 

the culture and the values of the company. The constant 

in all this, however, is the hospitality and comfort 

that we recognise from the hotel industry.” In 2017, 

Bean Buro developed the co-working space The Work 

Project in collaboration with leading hoteliers. Since 

then, ideas from this collaboration influence each individual 

office project. The appeal is unmistakable. 


© schneider+schumacher 

What’s on your desk, 

schneider+schumacher? 

The architecture office schneider+schumacher is located in a former general post 

office, just a few steps away from Frankfurt central train station. The building, 

erected in 1910, is characterised by its high ceilings and generous room arrangements. 

schneider+schumacher, who also operate branch offices in Vienna and 

Tianjin, are spread out over two of the four floors. 

“Our office is designed as an open space,” says Michael Schumacher. “While the 

working desks are arranged near the windows, the centre row of columns is ideally 

suited as a middle zone for breaks and informal discussions. In addition, at both 

ends of the large room there are conference rooms, tea kitchens and wet rooms.” 

The architect, who heads up the office with its 150 employees along with his partner 

Till Schneider, welcomes the open space design, not just because of its spatial 

qualities: “Everyone can see and hear when people are happy or when they are 

tense. We see this openness as essential for the office to function.” 

The working rooms are designed to be practical and functional. The focus here is 

concentration. A playful arrangement as you would see at Google, Facebook and 

Airbnb is out of the question for the architects. “Our work is already about passion 

and enjoyment. This is enough. We don’t need pool tables, colourful reclining 

chairs and other nonsense as well.” 


06 

© Kirsten Bucher 

01 

02 

03 

04 

05 

06 

07 

08 

09 

05 

We fitted our office with classic architect lamps. 

We are currently using the bright red Roxxane by Nimbus 

as a test object. We want to use the LED desk lamp 

in one of our future projects. 

The magnetic figures at a scale of 1:10 are perfectly 

suited to checking the ergonomics and proportions in a 

room model. 

We don’t believe in the paperless office. We are fans 

of paper. It’s true that more and more frequently, we 

complete our projects as BIM models, but the classic A4 

sheet of paper will never die out. The 29.7 x 21-centimetre 

piece of paper requires the architect to have 

discipline, which is something we shouldn’t ever do 

without. 

These are old, completely worn out wooden chairs from 

the Städelschule in Frankfurt where Joseph Beuys sat. 

Good proportions. Wonderful! 

When working, we change our sitting position at regular 

intervals. A stool encourages you to sit upright and this 

strengthens your back. The colour is not a coincidence. 

The red is the German signal red RAL 3020 which we 

used in our first large project, the Infobox in Berlin. 

Today, we use RAL 3020 in our office as a corporate 

colour. 

The sculpture comes from Frankfurt artist Ottmar Hörl 

and is in the shape of an architect. 

We find three-dimensional letters very attractive. The old 

German “m” stands for Michael and comes from an old 

bakery. There is also a “t” for Till. 

The pilasters between the windows are magnetic. We 

use the surfaces for postcards and project presentations. 

This little bit of kitsch makes the workplace nicer and 

more personal. 

22 contact

Office life 

Are you sitting comfortably? 

Stand up! 

The new efficiency: 

working while standing! 

Frequent changes of position between dynamic sitting 

and standing have a positive effect on our general 

wellbeing. Standing activates our back muscles. This 

relieves the strain on our spine and allows it to relax. 

Thanks to the upright position, we can breathe more 

freely and our body is supplied with more oxygen. 

A lack of oxygen can lead to headaches, difficulties 

in concentrating and tiredness. This is why working 

while standing has a very positive effect on productivity, 

especially during the afternoon slump. 

Standing in front of the screen is something we must 

train ourselves to do – just like sitting quietly when we 

were children. If you are not used to standing, you can 

start with short intervals and smaller tasks which can 

also be completed standing up. Your body will gradually 

get used to standing and the muscles in the corresponding 

parts of your body will be strengthened. 

Electrically height-adjustable desks are particularly 

well suited to quick changes of position. The combination 

of working phases while sitting and standing 

brings more movement and variation into our everyday 

life at the office. These intervals correspond to our 

natural need for movement. 

Improve your posture at a standing desk. 

Computer screen at eye level 

and directly in front of you 

The correct way to stand at your desk – what 

should you watch out for? 

Ensure there is a soft floor surface and you are wearing comfortable 

shoes. You might also use an anti-fatigue mat. 

Watch out for your posture. Try to stand up straight. Think 

about an imaginary string pulling your head towards the ceiling. 

Move around. Standing doesn’t mean remaining in position 

like a Grenadier Guard. Move your weight from leg to leg and 

stand on your tiptoes. This is how you can loosen your muscles 

and prevent pain caused by tension. 

Adjust the desk according to your needs. A height-adjustable 

desk is the easiest to use here. Your arms should lie loosely on the 

work surface without you having to raise your shoulders. If you 

have to bend forward or lean back to work in a standing position, 

the desk is at the wrong height for you. 

Pay attention to how your body feels. As soon as you feel that 

standing is strenuous, change back into a sitting position. You 

will gradually be able to extend your standing intervals. 

Tilt your screen to an angle of 20 degrees; 

distance between eyes and screen: 

50 to 70 cm 

The theory has become living practice. An increasing 

number of companies are fitting their 

office workspaces with electrically height-adjustable 

desks. This makes child’s play out of a 

quick change in position. Still, there are many 

different ways of standing. 

Movement is a natural human need. However, from 

a very young age, we are trained to sit still for several 

hours. For us, it is completely normal to spend eight 

hours sitting on an office chair. Those of us who prefer 

to sit down again after work instead of moving around 

are increasing their risk of health complications. 

According to current studies, people sit for an average 

of 9.3 hours per day. And as we don’t just sit for too 

long, but also sit in the wrong way as well, this inevitably 

leads to negative consequences: excessive strain on the 

spine, tension, pain and in many cases even irreparable 

permanent pain in the support and musculoskeletal system. 

In Europe, almost 50 percent of the annual number 

of sick days are now used in this area (source: a study by 

the Work Foundation on behalf of the EU). 

Arms at a 90-degree angle 

Wrists in a neutral position 

Occasionally, shift the weight 

from one foot to the other 

No high heels! 

Source: Adapted from Angus McIntyre and Matthew Brauer. 


Showroom 

The two sides 

of flexibility. 

Flexibility is frequently discussed in the office. On the one hand, this is regarding the flexibility of use 

and means the variable usability of office furniture. On the other hand, this refers to the flexibility of 

the user – meaning solutions for modern office nomads. For both cases, we want to present to you an 

interesting product innovation in this issue of contact. 

wh_locker: 

Storage space can be this beautiful. 

Locker systems are increasingly becoming the standard 

storage space option for office nomads. The wh_locker 

is a reduced, elegant cupboard locker system which 

was developed especially for co-working, desk-sharing 

and temporary work in open space offices. The individual 

2x and 3x combination models can be stacked 

together like building blocks and can therefore be 

used for many people. The front facades of the individual 

lockers are available in different versions – with 

a recessed handle, combination lock, locker number 

and letter slot. The wide range of colours and materials 

allow you to incorporate the lockers seamlessly into 

the architectural context. 

Combination lock 

Letter slot 

Locker number 

etio: Electrically height-adjustable workspace. 

Sitting/standing workspaces are experiencing a real 

boom. No office desk is making such a valuable contribution 

to workspace ergonomics like the sitting/standing 

workspace. As part of the office desk series etio, 

Wiesner-Hager has developed an electrically heightadjustable 

desk which is available as an individual desk 

as well as a double workspace. 

The height of the desk surface can be adjusted 

continuously from 65 to 125 cm. The desk can thus 

be adapted to changing activities in a matter of a few 

seconds. With the memory module, various user 

settings can be saved and then called up directly. 

The double workspace connects two desk surfaces 

which can be adjusted separately from each other 

with just one frame. etio is therefore an economical 

workplace solution as well as an efficient one – perfect 

for use in all office formats. The desk range is offered 

in different formats and in a broad selection of colour 

and material versions. 

Conclusion: The electrically height-adjustable etio 

permits a comfortable change from a sitting to a 

standing workspace. And thus triggers frequent 

changes in position, which has a positive effect on the 

ergonomics of the back and promotes concentrated, 

productive working. 


Rethink the office! 

Rethinking motivation: rethinking mobility: rethinking work formats: rethinking behaviour 

patterns: rethinking efficiency: rethinking the office: www.thinknewwork.com

contact office magazine #28

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