contact_magazine_33_EN

Issue 33 

Biophilic Design in 

office architecture. 

Reference story: 

House of Sustainability 

© www.greenovergrey.com 

What’s on your desk, 

Manuelle Gautrand?

Falling in love 

with green again. 

Cool and smooth, that’s how our offices should be – shouldn’t they? 

What was until recently the dominant trend in modern office architecture 

is gradually being supplanted by a new yearning: the rediscovery of green 

love. Read in our cover story how biophilic design breathes new life into 

offices. As an example, we shall show you how a 600-year-old building 

was transformed into a place with a signal concept for the future. 

Speaking of the future: we asked Horst Steinbacher, CEO of 

officeMEDIA, how digitization will change the face of the office. 

We also provide proof that the spatial environment can support the 

ability to learn and exemplify this in the corporate campus. On top of this, 

we give you tips on how to cut a good figure in video conferences. 

Last but not least, we take a look at the desk of Manuelle Gautrand, one 

of the most famous architects in France, and introduce to you a couple 

of super-relaxed options for remote work, off the beaten track of the 

office mainstream. 

With this in mind: lean back, relax, and enjoy the next few pages. 

Laura and Markus Wiesner

Biophilic Design in office architecture .............................................. .04 

Interview with Horst Steinbacher, CEO officeMEDIA ......................... 08 

Reference story: House of Sustainability ........................................... 10 

Corporate Campus. University flair in the office ................................ 14 

How to look good for video conferencing ......................................... 16 

Useful tips for everyday office life ..................................................... 18 

What does job sharing mean for the office? ..................................... 19 

Offices from around the world: 

SPERBANK Headquarters in Moscow ................................................ 20 

What’s on your desk, Manuelle Gautrand? ....................................... 23 

Remote work apart from working at home & at the office ............... 24 

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

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; conception / editing: Wiesner-Hager, mintmind Communication GmbH; layout: mintmind Communication GmbH, guest author: 

Wojciech Czaja; subject to typesetting and printing errors; 10/2021. 

contact 3

Falling in 

with green 

Interior Design 


4 contact

love 

again. 

In the past few years, offices have been growing 

cooler and smoother. But this time seems 

to be over now. Thanks to recent developments 

in longing for digitization and corona 

office culture more and more people are looking 

for green, natural materials and a stronger 

relation to mother nature. A declaration of 

love to Biophilic Design. 

Steve Mitrione from the University of Minnesota 

observed that patients who could view a green hedge 

outside were noted for their higher level of alpha 

activity. In other words: it makes them feel relaxed. In 

contrast, patients who are fated to look at a concrete 

wall show an increase in beta activity. They feel stress. 

Roger S. Ulrich, professor of architecture at the Centre 

for Healthcare Building Research at the Chalmers 

University of Technology in Gothenburg, found that 

patients with a view of the garden recover faster than 

those who have to look at a brick wall. This shortens 

their stay in hospital. 

And Clare Cooper Marcus, professor emeritus of 

landscape architecture at the University of California 

in Berkeley, discovered that patients in a green environment 

need far less pain medication and on average 

leave the hospital a few days earlier than patients 

without a natural environment. 

Hospital architecture has been showing the impact 

of the scientific studies made in the 1990s and 2000s 

for some time now. The planning of hospitals would 

be inconceivable today without the guidelines of so 

called biophilic architecture; otherwise, their operation 

would be far more inefficient and therefore more 

expensive, because every unnecessarily occupied bed 

devours economic assets – in Austria a hospital bed 

currently costs 682 euros per day. 

The advantages of biophilic interior design can also be 

applied to the office environment, because poorly designed 

workplaces generate dissatisfaction, an unpleasant 

working atmosphere, health complaints, a higher 

sick-leave statistic, and ultimately correspondingly low 

work efficiency to boot. Or, as Andreas Gnesda, CEO 

of teamgnesda, explains: “People have been around 

for two million years, we’ve been living in houses for 

12,000 years, and only in the last few decades have 

we started to create a relationship to nature for many 

people at work. How can we seriously assume that this 

will remain without consequences?” 

After many years of increasing digitization and virtualization, 

says Gnesda, not to mention increasingly cool, 

marketing-driven office design dominated by beautiful, 

media-reproducible images, the yearning for a 

certain naturalness is growing again in the workplace. 

“The photogenic amusement of the information society 

is over. People at last want to relate more to nature 

again. They want to be able to look out into a green 

environment, they want tactile contact with natural, 

authentic materials, and they want olfactory stimulation 

again, not just the smell of paints, adhesives and 

plasticisers.” Elements playing a major role include 

plants, the proximity to water, lighting design, natural 

building materials, also asynchronic and dynamic 

sensory stimuli that change over the course of the day, 

such as light, view and temperature. The foremost elements 

were identified by the US consultancy Terrapin 

Bright Green and a research group led by Christopher 

Alexander, Judith Heerwagen, Stephen Keller and 

Roger S. Ulrich (yes, indeed, the man who produced 

the hospital studies) and documented in the so-called 

“Fourteen Patterns of Biophilic Design”. Many companies 

already use the fourteen guiding theses as basis for 

the design of their office buildings. 

“One of the subtlest yet most logical examples of 

biophilic design is the furnishing of Apple shops 


Interior Design 


around the world,” remarks Christian 

Prasser, who with his office 

CP Architektur has specialised in 

the interior design of offices, shops, 

hotels, restaurants and so forth. 

“The ultra-modern Apple products 

are presented surrounded by indoor 

plants and warm light choreography 

on relatively massive wooden tables. 

The natural oak with its strong grain provides the 

perfect contrast to the high-tech products. On white, 

squeaky-clean, characterless surfaces, the unique aura 

of iPhones, iPads and MacBooks would be completely 

extinguished.” These, says Prasser, are precisely the 

reasons why we also have to rethink office design. 

While people needed smooth and bright surfaces for 

analogue work, this tends to be a hindrance in the 

age of digital work processes and of devices boasting 

increasingly improved illumination. “Slick office furnishings 

and perfect, minimalist lobbies are unthinkable 

today, such as we know them from the 2000s when 

major corporations became global trendsetters with 

their reduced architectural language. With increasing 

digitization, constantly improving high-tech products 

and the enervating tedium of virtual work forced on 

us by the coronavirus, we are now yearning yet again 

for the natural, for the imperfect.” What might this 

look like? “Linoleum instead of Formica, wood veneer 

instead of imitation wood, lots of different colours 

Plants in the office 

spread freshness 

and lightness, they 

connect us to the 

earth and calm us, 

and are veritable 

symbols of 

individuality. 

instead of a monochrome CI colour 

palette”, says Prasser. He especially 

underlines the benefits of flora: 

“Plants in the office spread freshness 

and lightness, they connect us to the 

earth and calm us, and they are veritable 

symbols of individuality, because 

they are the opposites of the serial 

and celebrate the imperfect. Nothing 

in nature is absolutely perfect. And the human being 

as part of a larger organisation is also far from perfect. 

This has to be respected in office design and subtly 

incorporated into it.” But the biophilic design offices 

cited and dreamed of by many experts also harbour 

dangers. “Not everything that is natural is actually 

good for people”, says the Viennese architect Ursula 

Schneider, CEO at POS Architecture. “Some woods 

contain formaldehyde, and we shouldn’t underestimate 

substances such as glue and chemicals added to 

increase longevity. In fact, some synthetic and surface 

materials have far lower emissions and are therefore 

better suited for indoor use.” To be on the safe side, 

Schneider advises comprehensive product management 

during the planning and construction phase regardless 

of whether it involves clay plaster, lime plaster, 

natural paints, oil, wax or natural furniture materials 

such as wood, linoleum or textiles. Absolute safety is 

assured by checking the VOC values. Volatile organic 

compounds provide information about the emission 


ehaviour of different products. Schneider: “If the smell of 

a just completed building is so new it reminds you of new 

cars, you should be suspicious.” 

For Bernhard Kern, CEO of Roomware Consulting 

GmbH, biophilic design, the use of recycled materials 

and the self-evidence of the circular economy concept are 

still in their infancy. “In theory we’ve come quite a long 

way – both industry and the specialist media see biophilic 

design as an indispensable part of today’s office culture, 

but in practice we’re still lagging behind somewhat.” So is 

everything just a bubble? “No, of course not, but I’ve actually 

observed that many companies back biophilic design 

because they need good results and as many climate-active 

points as possible. In the end, it’s all about acquiring the 

right certificate.” The first ideas, impulses and initiatives are 

already germinating, no question about it. As so often the 

case, innovative pioneering companies in the private sector 

are forging ahead as a good example. It will be a few years 

until biophilic design reaches the masses and is utilised by 

companies with the conviction already evident today in 

the planning and interior design of hospitals. The relevant 

analyses and benefits corresponding to the asset class have 

long been on the table. Cary Cooper, professor of organisational 

psychology and health at Lancaster University, 

found that performance, creativity and cognitive activity 

all increase when the workplace is designed with natural 

patterns and fabrics. The flooring manufacturer Interface 

discovered that employees with a view of trees on average 

take fewer days off than employees with a street view or 

without any kind of external visual stimulus. 

And the study “Creating Positive 

Spaces” by Oliver Heath and Well 

Building Standard concludes 

that the inclusion of vegetation 

in the office context leads 

to a faster return on investment. 

Biophilia: how can you 

not love nature when looking 

at these figures? 

Wojciech Czaja 

© Ema Peter 

Living walls designed by Gustavson Wylie Architects 

(www.gwa.ca) in collaboration with Green over Grey 

(www.greenovergrey.com) 


Interview 

Digital 

offices 

as game 

changers. 

How much technology do offices need? What 

is expected of modern workplaces? And will 

technology supplant us at work at some point? 

Horst Steinbacher is CEO of officeMEDIA 

and with his company supplies digital office 

concepts. He provides answers relating to the 

digital future of the office. 

What does a modern digital office concept look like? 

At all events, it needs what we call a holistic viewpoint. 

This means that all experts specialising in the 

themes of human culture, space & technology must 

sit down at one table. Today, companies want to adapt 

their facilities – work and meeting rooms but also 

social and team rooms – to the employees and not the 

other way round. We call this human-centred design. 

One problem that arises here is that many companies 

still think in the extremely hierarchical or exclusively 

process-oriented structures of the past. This hinders 

things enormously and prevents the unfolding of full 

potential. Furthermore, social change accelerates with 

future generations. We therefore recommend looking 

at the entire organisation from the vantage point of 

a user journey map and discussing everything openly 

and at eye level. This can be supported by using agile 

and creative process and collaboration tools, such 

as Miro.com. First comes workspace strategy, then 

technology! We at officeMEDIA cannot configure a 

perfectly tailor-made digital environment until we find 

out the needs of employees, customers and partners. 

How does an increase in remote working affect 

the office concept? 

The pandemic has forced companies to resort to 

remote working. But we already foresaw the development 

of remote working beforehand, and in the 

meantime it has quite obviously become established in 

the working world. Overall, we predict that the equipment 

of future activity-based zones will be of an even 

higher quality. Standard workplaces, namely, one fixed 

desk per employee, will be greatly reduced. The zones 

in the office will offer more options and flexibility 

while reducing the total area. There is a strong trend 

towards communication hubs such as team or meeting 

rooms, creative rooms, rooms and facilities for social 

communication and event zones in the office. 

What digital equipment is required for working 

at home? 

Working from home requires the same technical and 

ergonomic conditions as a hybrid office, and also the 

support of in-house IT services. Our customers’ IT 

departments have extended their helpdesk dealing 

with questions about communication technology at 

the workplace to their employees’ office at home. This 

means that every employee avails of exactly the same 


service conditions for notebook, 

video conference, etc., 

when working from home. 

It becomes somewhat more 

complicated with regard to 

the equipment. We assume 

that by 2022 more than 

eighty percent of all office 

workers will use a notebook 

for work and communication. 

Things become more 

difficult when choosing suitable 

tools for video conferencing 

or collaboration. The 

range is extensive here, but 

only few tools are feasible in 

the long term. Among those 

we recommend is the global 

market leader poly.com in 

combination with MS Teams 

applications. Speaking of 

Microsoft Teams: since over 

ninety percent of domestic companies use Microsoft 

as an office solution, it is obvious that the poly.com 

video conference or collaboration tool should also 

work closely with MS Teams applications in a tightly 

networked and disruption-free handling of media. 

Microsoft and poly.com have accordingly merged into 

an alliance that perfectly and harmoniously maps the 

data exchange. Easy to use. 

What digital developments will affect offices 

in the future? 

Among the factors shaping the rapidly advancing 

development of technology at the workplace we must 

count artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality 

(AR), and the virtual reality (VR) of all office, conference 

and meeting rooms, together with the high 

digital experience expectation of a new generation 

of employees. Any company that doesn’t entertain 

the idea of hybrid forms of work in symbiosis with 

attractive digital collaborative technologies will in 

future find it extremely difficult to arouse the interest 

of potential employees. The optimal digital environment 

is turning out to be the supreme game changer. 

Although robots won’t replace us in our work, smart 

technologies are already able to assist us and relieve us 

of sometimes tedious routine work. 

© officeMedia 

Horst Steinbacher is CEO of 

officeMEDIA in Vienna and 

Munich. He is an innovation 

driver and scientist especially for 

technologies in an increasingly 

hybrid working and learning 

environment. As a consulting 

and planning company, 

officeMEDIA is optimally 

represented in medium-sized 

and ATX companies. 

www.officemedia.at 

We at officeMEDIA think this 

is pretty cool. That is why we 

test such ‘useful little helpers’ 

in our own work environments 

in Vienna and Munich and so 

obtain valuable information for 

our customers. 

Finally, imagine the following: 

Marie from Generation Y 

works in a modern office 

campus. She is connected to her 

colleagues around the world 

via her MS Teams app and can 

work from anywhere. Today, 

she can’t make it to the meeting 

with her colleagues until later. 

So, via MS Teams, she joins 

in the meeting while she’s still 

on her way to work. When 

Marie finally reaches the 

campus, the software ensures 

a seamless transition to the 

physical meeting. 

Overall, we predict 

that the equipment of 

future activity-based 

zones will be of an 

even higher quality. 


Reference Story 

House of Sustainability: 

a pioneering concept 

in a historical shell. 

Even on approach, the Hofmann House, a fiftheenth-century building and former pewter 

foundry in Ried in Upper Austria already strikes the eye with its period charm. If you 

enter the Foundry, as it is still called today, you will encounter a combination of modern 

and above all sustainable design, embedded in old walls. 

© raumpixel 

The Foundry has recently been named “House of 

Sustainability and Regionality”. Hence their users, 

too, are companies that orient their activities on 

sustainability. In addition to various shops and service 

providers, the facilities also include a coworking space 

and scope for events and workshops. Wiesner-Hager 

supplied a large part of the furniture. Most particularly 

in the café the furnishings chosen included the 

creative font wooden chair, also the nooi bar stools and 

m.zone tables. Motivator of the overall project is the 

TRAFOS association, which has set itself the task of 

promoting sustainable lifestyles in the region. 

Environmentally conscious refurbishment. 

The House of Sustainability is a showcase project 

exemplifying successful and environmentally conscious 

refurbishment. “Most real estate developers 

and construction experts rated the house as ripe 

for demolition. Neither the room height nor the 

electrical and sanitary fittings came anywhere near 

meeting current standards. Despite these facts, after 

a long period deliberating the priorities of sustainability 

and preservation of the architectural heritage, 

it was decided to refurbish the existing building and 

to attain a well-balanced combination of traditional 


A special feature 

is the merging of 

user areas and 

concepts such as 

gastronomy 

and shop. 

© raumpixel 

© bonpart 

building stock and modern extension”, explains Karl 

Weilhartner, TRAFOS deputy chairman. The interior 

design was entrusted to Verena Waidmann and Lukas 

Gstöttner from the bonpart design studio. The two 

designers explain: “Since the Foundry was planned as a 

‘House of Sustainability’, the facility should ideally be 

a future-oriented interpretation of the theme, one that 

goes beyond contemporary formations. A forthright 

eco-look would have steered the topic into a niche 

where it no longer belongs. This is why we’ve focused 

on modernity, high quality and heart-warming comfort 

in the design so as to appeal to as many people as 

possible and to inspire their enthusiasm for the topic.” 

Old meets new. 

A special highlight is the café on the first floor of the 

building. The historical roof beams enhance the room 

with a charm all of their own. If you sit at one of the 

small round windows, you can let your gaze wander 

over the alleys of the inner city. The dark wooden 

chairs, round and whimsical in form, welcome you 

with a friendly promise of cosiness and comfort. And 

there’s a refreshing and informal counterpoint in modern 

bar stools with high tables. Right next to the café 

is a small shop with regional delicacies and sustainable 

products. “A special feature is the merging of user 

areas and concepts such as gastronomy and shop. 


Reference Story 

© raumpixel 

In the course of planning, we made sure that the 

areas complement each other positively and that the 

various requirements don’t come into conflict”, 

emphasises Waidmann. 

© raumpixel 

If you leave the café area and climb the wooden stairs 

made of regional ash, you reach the top floor, planned 

for coworking spaces and with an area for events and 

conferences. “ The coworking area is embedded in 

a really impressive setting under the historical roof 

timbers. The unique appeal of the design is achieved 

by fusing modern, bright Wiesner-Hager workplaces 

with the centuries-old beams. Architectural elements 

such as the new, waxed concrete floor and the wooden 

beams – supported on metal posts as part of the 

refurbishment – conjure up an atmosphere that is as 

warm and friendly as it is fresh and spacious. A glass 

wall with sliding doors divides the room into a 

coworking and event area. The other conspicuous 

features of this floor are the two atriums with glass 

parapets and a floating, organically configured light 

sculpture in the roof structure”, says Waidmann. 

“The Japanese repair technique ‘Kintsugi’ doesn’t try 

to cover or hide damaged areas, but cunningly repairs 

them with high-quality materials. This might also 


To sum up, you might say one of our 

ambitions was go beyond the expected 

eco-clichés and demonstrate the core essence 

of the theme. Our impressions as product 

designers on the international industrial 

design scene have made us aware of a distinct 

and encouraging trend: in the future, more 

and more things will exist whose intrinsic 

values and sustainability we shall not be able 

to see at first glance. To put it another way, it 

will become more normal, a new ecological 

standard, if you like. Sustainability is finally 

about to shed its image as a niche topic. 

be a way of summing up the Foundry agenda. The 

spirit and beauty of the centuries-old building were 

preserved and complemented as far as possible with 

modern, aesthetically pleasing and functional materials. 

Weilhartner concludes: “Among other things, 

what made this at all possible was that around seventy 

association members and shareholders contributed 

thousands of hours of work without pay.” 

© bonpart 

© Lothar Prokop 

Project data: 

Total area: 716.51 m² 

Client and operator: TRAFOS 

Interior design: 

Studio bonpart Design 

Furnishing: 

Wiesner-Hager 

bonpart, Lukas Gstöttner & Verena Waidmann 


Office Concepts 

© Studio Perspektiv, Prague 

Corporate campus. 

University flair in the office. 

Management literature abounds with titles addressing the organisation of learning. The pivotal question 

here is how organisations should develop so they can be characterised by a capability to learn. 

One aspect is frequently neglected here: the spatial environment and its underestimated importance 

in supporting the ability to learn. Corporate campus is a new interior design concept that fosters 

creative collaboration – and thus shared learning. 


hub – whether informal one-on-one discussion or 

fully fledged event location. In design, anything goes – 

as long as it pleases: stepped rostrums are particularly 

popular, inviting you to linger but also ideal for presentations, 

lectures or briefings. Upholstered furniture, 

lounge chairs, cafeteria chairs, bistro tables, sofas – 

there’s a long list of options for taking a relaxed break. 

Nonetheless, creative freedom is not an end in itself. 

It fosters a change in perspective, liberation from the 

desk concept, and stimulates creativity and initiative. 

If you need a break from working at your desk, the 

campus will give you plenty of scope to work elsewhere 

from time to time. Of course, the campus is also 

ideal for activities during breaks and social interaction. 

Depending on the situation, it can be a random 

meeting point as well as a coffee break hangout, etc. 

So the characteristic feature of this central hub is its 

vitality. In practice, however, employers frequently get 

While routine tasks will be automated more 

and more in the future, creative processes 

will be of much greater significance. The 

nucleus of attention will be on the innovative 

strength of learning organisations that manifest 

agile structures and are constantly in motion. 

In addition, this calls for meeting places 

that are more unconventional, emancipated 

from the classic desk. It involves the activation of areas 

and spatial zones in the office building that as yet have 

hardly been taken into account: underexposed central 

or peripheral zones, staircases, entrance areas, crossways 

and so on. One creative way of designing central 

zones is the corporate campus. Its design conjures 

up associations with a university campus: places that 

combine learning, work and the private and public 

spheres. Quite in the university style, unused spatial 

zones are converted not only into places for creative 

collaboration, but also for relaxed communication. 

The campus flair mellows the occasionally inhibiting 

character of formal meeting and conference rooms. 

The campus thus becomes a central meeting point and 

nervous about too much easygoing conviviality, spatial 

freedom and reduced efficiency. Nevertheless, studies 

on activity-based working demonstrate the opposite: 

attractively designed encounter zones are beneficial 

for everyone. Innovation and creativity levels are 

enhanced when employees can avail of multiple and 

ideal opportunities for spontaneous encounters and 

conversations. Well-designed crossways and hubs 

offer more potential for success than a complex 

team-building measure. But it’s important that the 

respective design matches the corporate philosophy. 

The corporate campus will thus come to be a core 

component of modern offices because it is fertile 

ground for New Work to flourish and reach fruition. 

© raumpixel 


Office Life 

How to look good 

for video conferencing. 

Organisation consultants have been promoting remote communication via video conferencing for 

many years now. The advantages are undisputed – reducing travel saves time and costs and protects 

the environment: two flights from Vienna to London produce more CO 2 than the complete equipment 

for a conference room throughout its entire life cycle. Nevertheless, a pandemic had to happen before 

the idea of remote meetings was kissed awake and immediately hit the limelight. Speaking of the 

limelight: not all participants are aware that certain quality criteria apply just as much to their online 

presence as to their physical, face-to-face conversations. Below you can find some recommendations 

on how to look good during video talks. 

© shutterstock 


Modern collaboration technology 

as basic requirement. 

Oops! The picture’s jerky, the sound cuts out, or the 

meeting only starts after a 15-minute delay because 

the dial-in doesn’t work. But this doesn’t have to be 

the case: technology companies have achieved a great 

deal in recent years and months in hard- and software 

for conferencing. They now provide sophisticated, 

easy-to-use products of high video and audio quality. 

The prices – especially in the professional sector – are 

significantly lower than they were ten years ago. But 

we are still left with the issue of the Internet connection: 

stable lines and sufficient bandwidth are basic 

requirements for quality online talks. It’s not possible 

to make a general statement about the transmission 

rate since it depends heavily on the type of work and 

the applications. To be on the safe side, you can refer 

to the provider in order to guarantee the highest – but 

admittedly the most expensive – bandwidth. 

Positive prevailing mood thanks to 

a creatively designed setting. 

The first impression counts – also online: and this 

first impression starts with you – for more than fifty 

percent of communication proceedings are enacted 

non-verbally. For example, if you stage your video 

meeting from your home office wearing your pyjamas, 

it may (or may not) go down well in a team meeting 

with your workmates. But for more formal meetings 

take care to maintain an appropriate dress code. Your 

outfit, like the background design, has a considerable 

influence on visual mood and transmission quality. 

Strong contrasts – for instance a black top worn 

against a white background – should be avoided. Instead, 

you should wear appealing colours that are not 

too robust and not overly patterned. The setting can 

be slightly structured. One or two creative accents – 

such as pictures or image visuals – catch attention and 

often break the ice in the talk. Altogether, you should 

try to establish a relaxed and reassuring atmosphere. 

This also applies to furniture in the field of vision, a 

table or shelves for instance. 

The ideal spatial setting for 

hybrid meetings. 

Hybrid conferences in meeting rooms with physically 

present and virtual participants require the tables 

to be arranged in such a way that the configuration 

visually supports face-to-face communication between 

the participants. To put it simply: all participants 

should be clearly visible on screen. This applies to 

rooms with both smaller and larger groups. Even 

if modern conferencing cameras can be focused on 

the speaker source, constant panning of the camera 

should be avoided, as it often annoys and can also 

impair image quality. For the set-up, this means: avoid 

excessively spread-out table arrangements and place 

additional microphones for elongated set-ups or larger 

rooms. And last but not least: do not point the camera 

directly at bright light sources and windows. 

A typical but not ideal-typical set-up in a 

meeting room for hybrid communication: 

there should be a distance of two to three metres 

between the first (occupied) chair and the 

camera so that the camera doesn’t have to pan. 

The room camera should be positioned at a 

height of approx. 120 to 140 centimetres – 

ideally below the display – to enable a talk at 

eye level. 


Trend Watching 

Useful tips for 

everyday office life. 

© bose 

© Trello 

Putting a stop to the mess. 

Trello is a straightforward and flexible visual tool you can 

use to manage and organise projects. Trello is trusted 

by millions of users around the world. It costs between 

$ 0.– in the “Free” version, and $ 10.– per user per 

month in the “Premium” version. 

www.trello.com 

The new experience 

in wireless headphones. 

QuietComfort earbuds fulfil every criterion. 

A highly efficient premium driver ensures a superlative 

sound experience. Microphones on the inside and 

outside of the earbuds pick up all noises, react immediately 

and generate a corresponding counter signal 

for the most effective noise reduction. QC earbuds are 

available in the colours Triple Black, Soapstone and two 

limited editions, Sandstone and Stone Blue, and have a 

battery life of up to eighteen hours. 

Formerly a lorry, now a laptop bag! 

Laptop bags by “Freitag” are based on an 

ingenious idea. Discarded lorry tarpaulins 

are transformed into highly functional 

one-off bags. The idea might not 

be new (the first prototype was 

produced in 1993), but it’s still 

brilliant. Each bag is unique. 

F304 MOSS, specially developed 

for mobile equipment. 

Available in all FREITAG stores, 

from selected retailers and at 

freitag.ch. 

© Bruno Alder 


Office Life 

Job Sharing: 

a job shared gets 

the work done. 

Full time or part time? Today, the options are 

more diverse than ever. With new models such 

as job sharing, firms can integrate temporary 

or permanent constructs for planning working 

hours that benefit both employers and 

employees. 

In job sharing, the content of a full-time position is 

divided physically between two people. Usually this 

involves a very demanding position with a comprehensive 

competence portfolio. In contrast to the classic 

part-time position, the tasks are performed jointly in 

most cases. 

From pairing to splitting. 

However, job sharing can take various forms. Job 

pairing means that two people are simultaneously 

responsible for all the tasks of a full-time position. 

Then there’s job splitting. Here the position is exactly 

divided. Each partner has precisely assigned areas of 

responsibility. And top sharing refers to managerial-level 

tasks that are performed in a team. The classic 

division of a 100-percent position is 50/50 for each 

of the two employees. In practice, however, there are 

also other ways of splitting the work, such as 40/60. 

The exact division must be individually adapted to 

each situation. Job sharing is often only used temporarily 

to complete an important project or to prepare 

the successor for taking on a position. The important 

thing here is to set down the exact conditions of the 

job-sharing model in the employment contract. 

There are wide-ranging advantages for the employer 

– double expertise, greater efficiency, and much 

more. Employees benefit from flexible time allocation 

and experience-sharing with their job partner. 

The model is also excellent for reintegrating parents 

after their leave. Of course, job sharing not only 

has advantages, but also involves increased organisational 

investment. Communication between the 

partners has to work, so when choosing the team it 

is important that there is harmony and sympathy 

in the tandem. 

Spatial requirements for job sharers. 

Besides their tasks, many job sharers share their 

workplaces as well, or do their work in the same 

office. Job splitters can use a shared desk by allotting 

their areas of activity. The requirement here is that 

both partners have agreed on attendance times. 

Top sharers or job pairers need zones in the office 

for communication and collaboration since they 

deal collectively with their work and the decisionmaking. 

Particularly helpful features in making job 

sharing as uncomplicated and as efficient as possible 

include intelligently deployed central zones, collaborative 

areas in team offices, temporary silent rooms 

as a retreat for undisturbed work, and dedicated 

creative spaces. 


Offices around the world 

From ruin 

to diamonds. 

© Sergey Melnikoff / Sberbank 

For thirteen long years, the office building stood as an unfinished shell in Moscow’s financial 

district. The Russian Sberbank took over the ruin and in it created a chipper and cheerful 

office world. Its heart is a conference hall like a cut diamond suspended on twenty steel 

cables in the atrium. Daring! 



Like multicoloured televisions the polygonal projections 

protrude into the cold, unembellished inner 

courtyard. Expressionistic steel boxes, six in number, 

house the intern meeting rooms of the individual 

departments. “As a contrast to the otherwise cool 

architecture of the atrium, we decided to inject life 

and energy into the meeting rooms”, says Tanya 

Ruegg, creative director at the Zurich planning office 

Evolution Design, “and not only the furniture, but 

also the floor, wall and ceiling.” They are warm, snug 

caves conceived at the interface between the intimacy 

of concentrated work and a side open to public view. 

The Sberbank headquarters, although the largest financial 

institution in Russia and Eastern Europe, isn’t 

located in a new building like their rivals’ headquarters, 

most of them on the opposite side of the river 

in the futuristic skyscraper district of Moscow City, 

but in an unspectacular building started in 2007 but 

never completed. The unfinished shell on Kutuzovsky 

Prospect stood for years on the banks of the Moscow 

River until Sberbank decided for reasons of resource 

technology to waive the idea of a new building and to 

refurbish and extend the ruin with a contemporary 

office concept. 

“The building structure was therefore self-evident”, 

says Ruegg. “Our task was to work within this strict 

portfolio and create an office environment as open 

and inviting as possible for flexible and activity-based 

work.” Grey carpet and cream-coloured linoleum 

predominate on the office floors, moreover, the 

planners opted for light, friendly types of wood and 

ring-shaped ceiling lights. Various interventions 

intermittently relieve this very neutral structure: 

colourfully furnished job clusters, amorphous glass 

boxes with diverse ornaments on the panes, and an 

interplay of open spaces and slightly offset regeneration 

areas partitioned off by curved screens. 

“Particularly in the banking business we usually find 

neutral, soberly designed office environments, but 

our idea was to reflect the fluid and flexible corporate 

culture in the rooms. So there are hardly any orthogonal 

rooms in the entire building, but mainly curved 

and triangular or polygonal room flows. We wanted 

to inject a certain dynamism into the rooms.” This 

is reflected in the flexible workstations, also in the 

overall office structure, which supports great deployment 

versatility. Each floor has in addition its own 



Offices around the world 

reception area and can be decoupled from the rest of 

the building and operated autonomously, if necessary. 

But the undeniable heart of the entire building is the 

central meeting room for twelve to fourteen people. 

Like a cut and polished diamond made of glass and 

stainless steel, the daring construction hovers in 

nothingness, buoyed in the air – reminiscent of a giant 

spider’s web – by twenty traction cables. “You won’t 

find a suspended room of this size a second time in 

Europe”, says Polina Voevodina, project manager at 


the Moscow partner office T + T Architects, which 

was mainly in charge of the official side of the technical 

implementation. 

Lurking within this apparent lightness is a fair amount 

of elaborate monitoring technology: each individual 

steel cable is equipped with a tension sensor and monitored 

around the clock. In the event of the slightest 

irregularity, a signal is immediately transmitted to 

the technical centre. A green detail on the side: the 

planners from Evolution Design and T + T Architects 

maintained the strict criteria of LEED and breeam 

in their selection of products and building materials, 

however, no certification was obtained for the building. 

Tanya Ruegg: “To be honest, we didn’t have the 

time. We were traveling in the fast lane. It took exactly 

twenty months from the draft to the handover of 

the keys.” 




What’s on your desk? 

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What’s on your desk, 

Manuelle Gautrand? 

Boulevard de la Bastille, located directly on Canal Saint-Martin, a few 

steps away from the Opéra Bastille. This is the very spot where for fifteen 

years or so one of the most famous architects in France, Manuelle 

Gautrand, has had her office. “I love this building”, she says, the woman 

with the everlasting smile. “This is a simple but absolutely beautiful 

industrial building from the 1920s, with a frame structure of industrial 

reinforced concrete and brick walls, and a long line of windows. And 

just as in those days, some commercial firms still rent premises here 

– printing shops, toy manufacturers and small jewellery workshops 

that even operate their own smelting furnaces. And so we’re here, 

too, the creative people – architectural firms, design studios, startups, 

coworking spaces and business incubators. It’s a great, wild mix.” 

Manuelle Gautrand’s studio is on the fourth floor, 300 square metres 

of it. She has remodelled and rebuilt the offices a number of times, 

using it herself as an experimental laboratory for her own architectural 

language. Her actual workroom she deploys exclusively for confidential 

discussions and zoom conferences, and is separated from her employees’ 

open-plan office by plywood and glass walls. This harmonises with 

the industrial charm of the entire building, she says. And it complies 

with their company philosophy – uncomplicated, transparent and 

egalitarian. We visited the Parisian architect and talked to her about 

the design of her workplace. 


© Studio Gaudin Ramet 

© Manuelle Gautrand Architecture 

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I like the raw aesthetic and warm tactile quality of plywood. It’s a 

cheap yet very sensuous material that blends in wonderfully with 

the industrial spirit of the reinforced concrete skeleton. 

A photo of our refurbishment project in the Gaité Lyrique in Paris, 

which we completed in 2011 – a flamboyant pink room with large, 

mobile seat sculptures. 

I can’t work without paper. Nor without a touch of chaos. Sometimes 

I check out old concept brochures again years later to see 

how the plans and concepts have turned out and how a building 

has actually evolved after completion. 

We work a lot with models, especially in wood, gypsum and 

cardboard. I make some models myself to familiarise myself more 

with the project. 

I love plants. Most of all cacti! Four years ago, I went on holiday 

to Mexico for the first time, and I’ve had a passion for cactus ever 

since. We also have a huge climbing plant in the office; it clings to 

reinforced concrete beams, cable ducts and acoustic panels and 

grows incessantly from year to year. 

My Eero Saarinen table: I love marble in all its forms and types. 

And for me the table is the perfect symbiosis of geometry and 

sensuousness. 

Matching white Panton chairs. 

A handbag with Bambi? Why not! As an architect, you spend part 

of your time dreaming. This means as well that you’re allowed 

deep down to remain a child. 

We have lots of books and magazines in the office. In my own 

workroom I mostly have art catalogues, urban planning books, 

writings on architectural theory and publications on nature, landscape 

and garden design. 

This is a 3D-printed plastic model of a concept store with a radial, 

circular construction grid we designed for Cairo. Unfortunately, the 

project was not built. Dreaming and not building is part of my job. 


Office Life 

Camping, 

garden and café. 

Remote work apart from working 

at home & at the office. 

Remote work, i.e., working independently of location, is often 

equated with working from home. But the places that lend themselves 

to mobile work are legion. We want to present to you a few 

options other than the office mainstream. 

© shutterstock 


Outdoors: the workplace 

in a world of green. 

Even as a child you were told: run 

outside and get some fresh air! Yet 

today we sit in the office for up to 

nine hours a day. All remote workers have the option 

of temporarily relocating their workplace outdoors. 

The bad news: sadly, tanking up on sunlight can’t be 

reconciled with work at the computer screen. So look 

for a quiet place – a park or (restaurant) garden – with 

enough shade so you can see what you’re tapping into 

your notebook and your device doesn’t overheat and 

leave you high and dry. 

The cruise ship: desks 

ahoy on the high seas. 

Since we’re talking about 

mobile working, how about 

a cruise? A voyage across the sea lasting days doesn’t 

offer much scenic variety – perfect conditions for 

working without distraction and stress. But caution: 

the space in your cabin is not what you’d call opulent. 

So it’s essential to clarify beforehand where to set up 

your office on the ship. And the Internet connection 

might also present a problem. By the way, do you get 

seasick easily? 

The café: productivity with 

cappuccino and cake. 

The café has always been an inspiring 

place and a setting for many a writer 

to ply his trade. Reason enough to 

pack your laptop and get stuck into work accompanied 

by coffee and cake. Admittedly, working in this 

remote space is not that simple. It requires preparation. 

First of all, you have to find the right location for 

this gastronomic work experience. Make sure of your 

internet connection, outlets, sufficient seating and 

a low noise level. If you plan to use your temporary 

workplace for an extended period, don’t forget to order 

a morsel or two every one and a half hours – after 

all, the restaurant owner has to stay in pocket, too. 

Once you have chosen your place to be, make sure you 

pack your notebook charger, headphones and your 

work documents, not forgetting your keys and wallet. 

The train: The way is the goal. 

Do you have to travel a lot for your work 

and are irked by unproductive hours in 

the car? What about taking the train for 

dealing with pressing jobs during the 

journey? Most trains are equipped with WiFi and 

outlets. A seat reservation guarantees you your 

mobile desk. On top of that, you’ll earn a medal 

as a climate hero. 

Camper van: work 

and travel. 

You think it’s a great idea to have 

a different view from your office 

every day? A trip in the camper van is ideal to bring 

a change of scenery into everyday work – mobile 

working in the truest sense of the word. But what at 

first sounds exciting needs a great deal of planning. In 

order to do a good job, at all events you need a stable 

internet connection. So don’t travel to remote places. 

Apart from this, the camper doesn’t offer much room, 

which restricts your workplace and possibly hinders 

you in your work. 

Workation: Go South! 

You, the laptop, the palm trees… We’re all 

familiar with these images. Sounds tempting, 

doesn’t it, but it’s only half as romantic 

the scene suggests. We’ve known for a 

long time that the screen and the midday sun are not 

the best of friends. This means you’re shackled inside 

during your workation period (also because of the 

mainly high temperatures). Although after work and 

at the weekend, you can play happy holidaymakers 

and enjoy the sea. But don’t go too far away because a 

possible time shift hinders work with your colleagues. 


Showroom 

m.zone – 

modules for 

New Work. 

Open units, central zones and hubs, or 

relaxation oases: to meet the demands of 

modern working environments, in m.zone 

Wiesner-Hager has created flexible modules 

for New Work offices. 

Future offices will provide employees with sophisticated, 

adaptable work environments that generate 

a task-supportive atmosphere. This means fade-out 

for rigid spatial structures. Requirements are more 

closely oriented on activities. “Activity Based Working” 

(ABW) is the order of the day. With m.zone, 

Wiesner-Hager has developed a completely new 

furnishing concept for offices which can be integrated 

perfectly into the organisation of agile companies. 

m.zone consists of individual elements such as screens, 

combination and free-standing furniture. New worlds 

of work can be created out of this modular furniture 

– tailored in every way to suit the customer’s individual 

ideas. Deployment areas in office architecture 

are wide-ranging: m.zone is ideally compatible with 

open-plan offices, central zones and hubs, crossways 

and lounges, likewise in reception and waiting areas. 

m.zone supports the philosophy of Activity-Based 

Working. What’s on the agenda at the moment? 

How much space does this need? And what does 


the best place for these activities look like? In contrast 

to classic desk sharing, ABW focuses on choosing the 

workplace most suitable for the respective activity 

profile. Modern offices are making more and more 

space available in particular to accommodate collaboration. 

The office is gradually becoming a place of 

encounter. New types of rooms and spaces also enable 

work to be done away from the classic desk. Open yet 

small-structured coworking units are ideal for team 

and project work and the development of creative ideas. 

In supplying these work area options, m.zone has 

come up with three different module categories for 

New Work: 

work. 

For concentrated, temporary tasks – 

inspired by the role of a classic secretary 

– the work modules are designed based 

on the respective combination to provide 

individual and to some extent shielded 

workstations for occasional jobs. 

meet. 

Spatial zones for collaboration and communication: 

variably concatenated screens form the basis for 

flexible (team) meetings, informal talks, workshops 

for brainstorming and so forth. Depending on use, 

the furniture can be chosen very individually. 

relax. 

Quiet zones and islands of retreat: 

comfortable seating and screening 

partitions create a relaxed atmosphere 

during breaks, informal talks and 

interpersonal communication. 


Rethink your office. 

Seven scenarios for office space 

planning after the coronavirus. 

On the way to normality in the working world, it is necessary not just to overcome (short-term) 

health-policy obstacles, but also to rethink sustainable developments in office design. While we are 

currently mainly occupied with measures related to physical distancing in the office, companies will 

also face many changes in the long term after the coronavirus. Seven scenarios for the office working 

world are of special significance. 

You can download 

our detailed 

whitepaper here.

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