contact_magazine_#36_EN

Edition 36
Off to New Work!
Creative spatial scenarios.
Office decoration – aesthetic
horror or emotional necessity?
Colour your office.

Can you show me
the way to New Work?
– Just keep turning the pages! The way from the traditional office
to the New Work office has turned out to be the hottest challenge of
today. Traditional mindsets regarding organisation and leadership are a
thing of the past. Joining forces with the architect Martin Thörnblom,
an expert for innovative office concepts, we’ve booked a discovery trip
to New Work and composed the title story based on the valuable experiences
made on the journey.
This is followed by a declaration of love to that very special whatnot.
We are referring here to the little individual touches dreamed up by office
employees to try and fight the uniformity of their workplaces, also
in future. In that context, Wojciech Czaja diverts us with a fantastic
story about aesthetic horrors and emotional necessities.
Then up and away we go onto the newly planned sixteenth floor of the
Uniqa Tower on the Danube Canal in Vienna. A smart zoning concept
offers not only a breathtaking panoramic view but also an inspiring
inside perspective of the future of work.
Down on the ground floor again, we invite you to a walk in the woods
on half a square metre; we reveal to you the colour of the year 2023 and
bring the lighting management in your office to perfection.
Following this, we go on another journey, this time into the heart of
the Indian cornucopia. The office of a furniture manufacturer in Mumbai
pulls everything out of the horn of plenty and is unrivalled in opulence:
absolutely nothing can top this in quality and complexity. But if
you tend to be minimalist or ascetic, you’d better skip these pages.
On this note we say farewell and hope you enjoy the read!
Orientation on the way to the modern office ..................04
Creative spatial scenarios for New Work offices .............07
Office decoration: a declaration of love to the whatnot ...10
Reference story: Uniqa Tower Vienna ..............................12
Trendwatching: useful ideas for everyday office life .......15
Colours and trends in office design ................................16
Lighting management in the office ................................18
Offices from across the world: OFFICE @63, India ........20
What‘s on your desk, Simon Andreas Güntner? ..............23
Success factor community management ........................24
Showroom: circular economy ..........................................26
Laura and 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; concept/editor: Wiesner-Hager, mintmind Communication GmbH; layout: mintmind Communication GmbH, guest author:
Wojciech Czaja; typing and printing errors reserved; 05/2023.
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Office Concepts
Off to New Work!
Orientation on the way to
the modern office.
Maybe you’ve come across this kind of situation: you know something has got to change.
In a big way. Permanently. In the long term. To put it in a nutshell: a really big project is
looming. So comprehensive and complex that the start alone casts up very many questions.
A great number of firms are having to deal with this kind of project at the moment:
they are on transit from the traditional office to the New Work office.
Two years’ pandemic have permanently
changed the world of work. Firms have
to rethink things to make the office
more attractive once again as a place of
(collaborative) work. But what does a
modern office look like? Who provides
support for the initial concept?
And how should this kind of project
be approached? Architect Martin
Thörnblom, founder and CEO of the
architectural firm Studio Thörnblom,
has been supporting firms for years in
redesigning their offices. We set off with
him on the quest for answers.
New Work:
from theory to practice.
It’s obvious for the architect Martin
Thörnblom that a modern office should
promote productivity and satisfaction.
“The influence of office architecture is
enormous and must never be underestimated.
At best, employees are proud
of their workplace, they feel good and
enjoy coming into the office. This will
give them impetus in their daily work.
Of course, the employer has to invest
in office design and create a setting that
inspires this state of things.”
How do we launch a project of this
size and scale? It’s best to start with the
basics. First of all, we have to concentrate
intensively on analysing the concept
of New Work. New Work directs the focus onto
three thematic areas: the human being, space, and
technology.
The human being is not only the centre of everything
but is positioned between the polarities of leadership,
management, organisation and corporate
culture. The aim is to create optimal conditions for
collaboration. In doing this, we have to harmonise
the demands of the organisation with the different
needs and work modes of all stakeholders. “Traditional
mindsets regarding organisation and leadership
do not function any longer in the world of New
Work. The main driver of change is digitisation. It is
rewriting the rules of the game in a totally new way:
how and where we work, and how we communicate
© studio thörnblom
Martin Thörnblom is president
of the ECIA. The European
Council of Interior Architects is
the representative body of
European professional
associations for interior design.
Founded in 1992, the ECIA
currently represents sixteen national
member organisations with
more than 14,000 professional
interior designers. In 2003,
Martin Thörnblom founded
his own bureau for interior
design in Vienna – Studio
Thörnblom. Studio Thörnblom
offers the entire range of interior
architectural planning –
including feasibility studies,
consulting and planning, official
authorisation procedures, project
processing, and final handover.
studio-thoernblom.at
with one another”, Thörnblom
outlines the disposition that is
necessary for further development.
The forms, models and places of
work are subject to a strong trend
towards flexible organisation. Embedded
in the appropriate building
and equipped with customised
interior design, rooms will become
places generating and promoting
creativity, innovation and collaboration.
Your own culture in focus.
Caution: if you think that now is
the time to shake things up, you
should start by making a thorough
analysis of your identity and organisational
culture. Because, just as
important as the analysis of the basics
of New Work is the confrontation
with your own values and
attitudes. This involves a precise
scrutiny of leadership culture:
• Does the firm’s positioning
harmonise with the concept of
New Work?
• Are people ready for organisational
changes?
• Are work at home and remote
work already established within
the organisation, or are things
still run according to a rigid
presence-based model?
• Do the existing hierarchies enable agile and flexible
work, or do they impede it?
The trendiest New Work office cannot produce any
added value as long as the company’s organisational
culture is incompatible with New Work. “As planners,
we like to latch the benchmark high and would
prefer to replan every office as a hip coworking hub.
But the fact is, you have to adapt individually to each
single firm and its culture. So, as a first step we get
feedback and try to let the wishes of the stakeholders
inform our planning. Ultimately, each individual
worker has to feel “at home” and have the feeling of
contributing his and her share”, Thörnblom emphasises.
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Office Concepts
Time for Inspiration!
Creative space scenarios
for New Work offices.
When planning a modern office, a great deal
of rethinking is required: instead of thinking in
terms of fixed workplaces, it is necessary to create
spatial options. Because every task is different
and needs its own supportive setting. Together
with Roomware Consulting, we are presenting
seven potential spatial scenarios for New Work.
The new significance of the
office space.
It matters little whether we’re talking about a new
building or a conversion – the main thing is to inject a
new mindset into the office concept. In future no one
will plan fixed workplaces; instead, spatial options for
working will be created. This also means reinterpreting
and restructuring office areas or zones. “In practice
we see that the area required for traditional office
workplaces has significantly decreased. On average we
are talking about a third of the total area. The reason
is that remote work has increased since the pandemic”,
Thörnblom adds.
After analysing the specific organisational culture and
the actual status of the available office space and digitisation,
work starts on planning a suitable concept. It
is recommended in this phase to organise professional
support. Specialised architectural practices and office
consulting firms help in working out customised concepts
for New Work. This yet again involves jointly defining
the specified utilisation and area requirements,
and a modern office structure will be created in line
with the firm’s individual identity and culture.
Current trends demand creativity.
Even though office space planning is an individual
process, certain trends can be noted. These might offer
an initial orientation for firms that are anticipating
the “New Work Office” project. “We mostly had openspace
offices already prior to the pandemic. This trend
is still holding sway – after the short-term chapter of
social distancing – but in the form of open units”, the
interior architect describes the development. However,
this has nothing to do any more with the old, familiar
open-space office. “Quite typical now are the ministructured,
zoned sections and screened-off areas for
discussions and video calls, which are integrated into
the open-space
area. I also recommend
to my clients to
accommodate free spaces
in between. You don’t need to
furnish every square metre; not doing
so will create a feeling of space and freedom.
Workers then invent uses for this empty space
themselves, which again motivates creativity”, Thörnblom
explains.
In designing spaces, there is a popular tendency to
distinguish between focused work and collaboration,
which also governs the planning in many cases. “This
separation cannot be generalised and varies greatly
according to department and task area. In principle,
though, you can say that in a modern office communication
and collaboration areas are gaining in significance.
Work often takes place in remote form, which is
why workplaces are frequently arranged as shared desks
with a booking system. Offices have to be planned
in such a way that an exchange of information in the
teams is facilitated in the best possible way. The most
important thing here is to create meeting places and
communication zones, where not only discussions but
also spontaneous and chance conversations can take
place”, underscores Martin Thörnblom.
First of all, we define four basic areas
for the following planning examples:
Focused Work:
Places for concentrated mental work and undisturbed
remote discussions off the beaten track of the frequently
hectic everyday routine in the office need an ambience
for retreat and focus.
Coworking:
Open units and coworking landscapes for team and
project work, also creative idea development: they offer
room for collaboration and innovation and transform the
heart of the office into an attractive workplace.
Collaboration & Communication:
Offices of the future primarily need to support collaboration.
The communication of the future is hybrid:
creative rooms and meeting rooms have to avail of the
necessary equipment in order to be able at all times to
integrate virtual participants seamlessly into discussions
and conferences.
Healthy Community:
A positive working environment results from many different
factors. A healthy organisational culture fosters the
formation of a strong office community, which ultimately
is an unbeatable business team as well.
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Office Concepts
Basic typology of office work.
Within these four basic types of office work, various spatial ideas can be realised that are adapted to different requirements.
The following six examples can serve as inspiration for modern worlds of work:
Library
No, this isn’t (only) about books! Although
most firms in the digital age no
longer need the traditional function
of the library, we still love the vintage
charm of libraries. They offer an ideal
place of retreat – off the beaten track
of the dynamic, occasionally hectic
environment of the office. The creative
options offer wide-ranging scope:
cosy wing chairs are equally part of
the scene as modern cafeteria furniture.
And of course, the characteristic
library shelves are indispensable.
Coworking
Landscape
Even more than concentrated work,
coworking zones are vital in that
people from different offices and
departments interact and sound out
areas of contact for cooperation. As
regards interior design, coworking
spaces offer much scope for freedom:
industrial style, living-room, lounge
or open space, biophilic environment
or urban marketplace.
Open Units
Open units are integrative components
of an open space concept but
structured into smaller spatial units
and – depending on purpose – more
or less visually and acoustically
screened off. The unit idea, as we
know it from organisation theory, is
also implemented in spatial terms.
The main purpose of these organisational
units is to support collaboration.
In creative and innovative
processes the units support openness
of thinking on one hand, and on
the other offer the required privacy
to facilitate concentrated team and
project work.
Scrum & Design
Thinking
In scrum project management and
design thinking used as a problemsolving
strategy, the environment
takes shape as sort of an agile project
office. This concept demands a very
flexible and mobile spatial structure,
because in every sprint and project
phase different team members work
together more closely than others.
Not only open room structures but
also expansive visualisation tools
like flat screens and whiteboards are
typical of scrum spaces.
Lean Coffee
Openly discussing important topics
in a relaxed café atmosphere – this
puts in a nutshell the basic principle
of Lean Coffee, a very special format
for meetings. The optimal spatial
option therefore avails of flexible furnishings,
particularly for discussions
while standing. Obviously, another
important aspect is communication
and presentation equipment such as
whiteboards (increasingly digital) and
flip charts. And, of course, a coffee
machine.
Marketplace/
Community Space
A quick coffee with workmates, an
informal talk or a relaxed meeting –
the marketplace is the central meeting
point in the office. Characteristic
features of this area are the various
levels of the furniture: high table, bar
sections, also a comfortable lounge
area – the range of furnishings is
unlimited. This is where you take a
break, meet people and chat, but also
work – thus creating a public zone of
informal character.
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Office Life
A declaration of love
to the whatnot.
Office decoration – aesthetic horror or emotional
necessity? Our author Wojciech Czaja
remembers his own years spent in an openspace
office and has a very firm opinion
about kitsch at the workplace. Because: “A
noble heart creates its own office world for
itself.”
A former colleague and desk neighbour of mine
in the open-space office, let’s call him Markus, is
a jack of all trades – especially at all meetings and
conferences. A specialised journalist, he jets around
the world, listening to state-of-the-art lectures and
discussions on logistics, technology and digital solutions.
He brings the colourful badges and plasticcoated
name labels back with him to Vienna as souvenirs
and hangs them on the lamp head of his desk
lamp. After a few years it was bound to happen. Our
workmate’s travels – and above all his reappearances
– increasingly intrigued and tickled us because every
imported conference badge challenged the statics
and spring mechanism of his silver-grey desk lamp
with a few more decagrams, until finally – spent at
the end of its luminance and bearing capacity – it radiated
more shade than light and, under the load of
the attached souvenirs, lost its balance and crashed
precipitously onto the floor.
Don’t worry, the old badges disappeared into the
drawer, but Markus was not deterred in his passion
for the chase and for collecting. He decided to start
from scratch and adorn his lamp – the same item
with a little dent in the shade – anew. Whenever I
turn up today at conferences and receive a garishly
colourful whatnot to hang round my neck at checkin,
I have to think of the old times in the open-space
office and the sudden crash-bang of the lamp.
Markus isn’t the only one with a penchant for office
decoration – although his fad is far more sophisticated
than all the cat pictures, holiday postcards
and copyshop coffee mugs with “The Boss” printed
on them that you usually come across. These are the
little touches dreamed up by office workers to fight
the uniformity of their workplaces – so as to escape
the surrounding dreariness and uninspired monotony,
and to diversify their environment with a whiff of
individuality. You can’t hold it against them.
“A noble heart will soon find its way home; it creates,
in still endeavour, its world for itself ”, as Friedrich
Schiller once wrote in his play “Homage of the Arts”.
To be exact, he placed these words in the mouth of
his protagonist Genius. And Genius knows what he’s
talking about. Creating one’s own world has always
been one of humankind’s fundamental needs down
to the present day – whether at home, at work or at
play. And it’s all the more important for employers to
recognise this desire, this urge, and create the necessary
scope to accommodate self-expression.
What may not always be desirable in the traditional
style of office, if tacitly tolerated in most cases,
confronts office designers in times of flexible and
decentralised work with entirely new challenges.
How can you give a place a personal touch if you
change it every day, populate it for only a few hours
a day before vanishing into work-at-home limbo or
orbiting into cyberspace, where you dematerialise all
material settings at the touch of a button? The good
news: you can. Perhaps not with holiday photos,
© Florian Albert
Wojciech Czaja (44) is a
journalist, author and
moderator in the fields of
architecture and urban
culture. He teaches communication
and urban development
at the Vienna University of
Applied Arts and at the
University of Arts Linz.
picture postcards and conference badges, but all the
more with individualised, adapted applications on
the hardware and software level. Like our iPhones,
personalised through colourful silicon cases, coloured
charging cables and optional lock screens and wallpapers,
we can also individualise work islands and
harmonise them with personal needs.
Adolf Loos construes an analogy in his work “Ornament
and Crime” that signally informed the history
of architecture in the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries, but we must vehemently contradict this
precept in our age of digitisation and New Work
culture. Besides the self-evident aspects of comfort,
concentration and corporate identity, offices also
need beauty, decoration and perhaps even a little
© freepik
kitsch and bits and bobs, whether on the pin wall, the
office trolley or the desktop.
There’s nothing worse than a decoration veto issued
from above. And when your coworkers fight for their
personal trifles and out of pure desperation bring
granny’s ancient aspidistras with hydroculture granules
into the office you, dear employer, shouldn’t fight
the symptom but should scout around for the cause.
My Markus is still into collecting. Simply brilliant.
Wojciech Czaja
© freepik
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Reference story
UNIQA Tower:
attractive office with
smart zoning concept.
The UNIQA Tower is located directly on the Danube Canal in Vienna. The
tower is 75 metres high and structured into twenty storeys, where more than
a thousand UNIQA employees do their work. In order to make this particular
workplace even more attractive and contemporary, the sixteenth storey of the
tower has been remodelled – as the epitome of a New Work scenario.
© Martin Zorn Photography
The UNIQA office is focused on
creative collaboration, encounter,
and the personal development
of its employees. By
remodelling the office as a place
for New Work, UNIQA aims
to position itself as a progressive
and attractive employer. Office
planning is by Roomware Consulting.
UNIQA has entrusted
the furnishings to the creative,
comfortable and ergonomic
products of Wiesner-Hager.
Creative zoning concept.
Area division keeps to a practical zoning concept
with two basic zones: a public zone and a home-base
zone.
The public zone includes a so-called collaboration
area for major discussions, brainstorming and informal
meetings. Here, a large high table with bar stools
and convenient monitors for integrating digital
content is combined with a snug yet agile area with
couch and cube seats. Everything is kept in a fresh
green, complemented by UNIQA’s corporate colour,
Employees
have the
option of
situative work in
which each
task is
supported by
the appropriate
setting.
the familiar blue. The public
zone also includes smaller,
variously furnished sections. So
they are suitable for different
types of discussions and teamwork,
yet also for quiet concentrated
work, remote conversations
and creative brainstorming.
The optimal setting is provided
for every requirement, whether
traditional conference table
arrangement or comfortable
upholstered furniture. “Employees
therefore have the option
of situative work, so that each task is supported by
the appropriate setting. In toto, the number of rooms
for discussions and collaboration has been greatly
increased”, Bernhard Kern, CEO of Roomware
Consulting, describes the concept that complies ideally
with the trend towards activity-based working.
Instead of allocated desks there is a wide range of
variously designed sections.
The home-base zone concentrates on the individual
workplaces. It includes an individual focus area for
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Reference story
Trendwatching
Useful ideas
for everyday
office life.
© aeris
© rytr
employees who don’t have the option of working
at home. The desks can be adjusted in height, thus
enabling ergonomic work standing up.
Great value is placed on ergonomics in the seating
as well: the swivel chair models provide dynamic
seating with high-level comfort. “It’s important to
create focus areas. The world of the office is dynamic
and occasionally hectic, so we also need places of
retreat for concentrated work”, Kern
emphasises.
Focus on sustainability.
When designing the office, the main
focus was on sustainability. For instance,
lockers were equipped with the
existing locker doors. The desktops
were also reused: equipping them with an electrical
height adjustment mechanism gave them a new lease
of life.
The New Work office is surrounded by a panoramic
view across Vienna, which employees and guests can
enjoy from practically every room, thanks to the endto-end
window front.
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Project data:
Client: UNIQA Insurance Group AG
Office concept & interior design:
Roomware Consulting
Furnishings: Wiesner-Hager
Total area: approx. 15,000 m²
Feel like a virtual tour through the
new UNIQA office? Click here to
watch the video:
Your walk in the woods on half a
square metre.
Standing on hard floors puts great stress on the body
after a fairly brief period. In order to make work in
a standing position more comfortable, Aeris has
developed the Muvmat. This special anti-fatigue mat
is the perfect supplement for a height-adjustable desk,
but also for all other workplaces where people have
to stand for lengthy periods. The topographical 3D
structure in the mat activates foot reflex zones, relaxes
the muscles, and keeps the body moving: like a walk
on forest floor.
www.aeris.de
Parrot free-standing luminaire.
The Parrot free-standing luminaire
manufactured by Grau is highly functional.
Charged by means of an innovative
charging stone, it can be relocated easily
thanks to its stable but lightweight aluminium
body. It’s as practical on the desk
as it is when simply enhancing the setting.
The light disc of the luminaire head is
equipped with a high-power 10 W LED
unit. The free-standing luminaire can
be dimmed using a touch panel. Further
advantages: the entire luminaire can be
adjusted 42 cm in height, whilst its luminaire
head inclines 30° and rotates 310°.
www.grau.art/products/parrot
© grau
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Interior design
The Pantone Colour Institute has voted Viva Magenta as colour of the year 2023.
The vivid red with a touch of magenta is particularly striking and brings up
the question about integrating (trendy) colours into office design.
Design: Schönstil © Lorin Canaj
Design: Schönstil
Colour your
Office.
© PhilippLipiarski
Yvonne Meindl-Cavar is founder and CEO of
Schönstil, consulting engineers for interior architecture
and design, in Vienna. Among her activities,
she designs worlds of work and has a predilection for
integrating a variety of colours. She knows only too
well: “Colours can generate worlds of atmosphere
quite specifically, soothing or stimulating according
to need. The prerequisite is that you study the effect
of different colours.” Blue and green, for instance,
have a relaxing and calming effect; black used in the
correct amount can be elegant but if applied too
extensively can appear heavy and negative. Yellow
generates an optimistic and stimulating atmosphere,
while extensive areas in red can evoke an aggressive
mood. However, if used skilfully, a touch of red can
boost activity. White is a non-colour that steers focus
and concentration onto
the actual task at hand,
but shouldn’t be used too
spaciously, because white
can easily come across as
sterile and cold.
Transposed to office
design, this means that
not only the effect of the
individual colours is a
key factor but also their
combination and dosage. For instance, if you work
all day at the screen, the desktop colour should be
light in hue so that the contrast to the screen isn’t
too strenuous for the eyes. In the extended office setting
the correct combination of colours is of primary
importance. Best of all, you should restrict yourself
to three or four tones that can be applied in different
proportions. “I use colours to create demarcations
– for instance between communication zones and
task areas, and to cite the firm’s corporate identity in
terms of a resonant and cohesive overall concept. In
doing so, I rely mostly on muted colours, which you
don’t get tired of so quickly,” says Meindl-Cavar.
Colours can generate worlds of
atmosphere quite specifically,
soothing or stimulating according
to need.
Trendy! But sensible, too?
So much for colour theory. But let’s get
back to this year’s trend in colour – Viva
Magenta. It brings us to the question of
whether it’s sensible to tune office design
in with (short-term) trends. How do
you integrate trendy colours without having to keep
adapting to the latest craze? “I feel that all colours
are timeless that are reflected in muted form and in
great abundance in the natural environment. For
example, blue tones, green, beige and brown. These
colours never go out of fashion, and you don’t get
tired of them so quickly. This is why I wouldn’t advise
applying trendy colours at random. Colours should
always relate to the firm, or be deliberately applied
to create a specific image for it. In principle, though,
we should stop being
afraid of colours. A wall
can usually be repainted
quickly and without
too much trouble. This
does not outweigh the
enormous benefits to be
gained by colour”, says the
interior designer emphatically.
Viva Magenta is outstandingly
vivid and intensive. People are very shy
about using striking colours – especially in the office
environment. “Basically there isn’t any colour in
existence that is too intense. It’s all a question of how
it’s applied. Ultimately, the colour design ought to
be perceived as pleasant by a great number of people.
Only then will they feel “at home”, and this is what
it’s all about. If a firm’s corporate design is underscored
by a striking colour, you can inject this subtly
into the design with accents of colour. If people
want to paint a large number of walls, they should
choose a more muted version of the colour so as not
to be swamped by hyper-stimulation”, Meindl-Cavar
describes the experiences gained in her daily work.
© freepik
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Interior design
Flexible. Agile. Smart.
Lighting management
in the office.
Too bright, too dark, glare. Finding the optimal lighting for productive work and
supporting agile workplaces requires know-how and planning.
In the right light.
If a workplace is badly lit it can lead to fatigue and
headaches. On the other hand, too much light or
direct sunlight will cause glare and concentration
difficulties, especially when working at the screen.
In principle, the statement holds true: if it’s bright
enough, daylight should be the rule. But since this
isn’t always possible, artificial light sources must be
deployed.
Experts recommend an intensity of around 300 to
500 lux for direct lighting of the workplace. The
best-case basic lighting for a room is gauged at 100
lux. To avoid negative effects, potential reflectors
should be covered and luminaires positioned in such
a way that they do not shine directly on or dazzle
employees’ eyes. A combination of ceiling lights
and free-standing and task luminaires is beneficial.
Placement of the desk parallel to the window avoids
glare and reflections. According to the experts, the
CRI value – the colour rendering index – of an
object is a key factor when it is lit from a light
source. If luminaires have a high CRI, they
support natural colour perception in the
room. This means that the colours
have a natural and non-artificial
effect. A distinction is also
made between indirect and
direct lighting. Freestanding
luminaires
and wall spotlights
radiate from
the desk into
the room
without
glare,
while ceiling lights, for instance, directly illuminate
the room from overhead.
Variable solutions for agile work.
Digitisation and modernisation of the world of work
also require the lighting to be adapted to the increasingly
agile work styles. Many rooms are modular and
used for a diversity of tasks. Smart lighting is precisely
adapted to this need for flexibility. Equipped
with sensitive sensor technology, the luminaires are
adjusted to their environment and radiate as much
light as is required in whatever situation. You don’t
need to switch on and off: as soon as the coworkers
leave the room, the light automatically goes off. In
addition, centrally controlled points actuate lighting
management overall for all offices.
A particularly adaptable solution is needed in conference
rooms. During a presentation, the media wall
has to be kept dark enough to enable an optimal view
of the visualised contents, yet sufficiently bright to
avoid fatigue. Dimmable luminaires and separately
switched solutions enable individual setting options.
A flexible variant is also provided by easily transportable
battery lamps. Burdensome cables are
dispensed with, and, as desk lamps or free-standing
luminaires, they are deployable any time precisely
where they are needed.
Customised lighting design.
But where are we to install the lighting and what
kind? Pendant lights, spotlights, which is better?
Dimmable or manual control? The theme of lighting
is a key component in office planning. For an optimal
solution, the office planner and lighting management
experts are recommended to work out a customised
plan for the respective rooms and requirements.
© shutterstock
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Offices from across the world
an undulating view from underneath as if plunged
into an Indian Ocean of cognac, discovering the
softly rippling surf above. “Quite an eyeful, don’t
you think?” Sanjay Puri laughs, obviously delighting
in the Baroque cornucopia of the office building he
has designed in Navi Mumbai, a new, modern urban
development in the north of the Indian mega-city.
“But the opulence and heterogeneousness in this
project are purely intentional, because they visualise
where our client’s competency lies.”
© Vinesh Gandhi
In the heart of the
Indian cornucopia.
© Vinesh Gandhi
Narsi & Associates was founded around forty years
ago, began as a small carpentry firm and developed
in the course of time into the largest B2B furniture
manufacturer for the office and commercial markets
in the country. Among Narsi’s clients are Google,
Amazon, Deloitte, Unilever, and the Indian automobile
concern Tata. “Narsi builds, develops and
produces furniture in the XXL range in small series”,
explains Sanjay Puri, “and the assignment involved
planning an office located directly next to the
factory, which simultaneously acts as showroom for
the customers. And it was the client’s express wish
to design it as complex as possible as regards space,
geometry, materials, design and building technology,
because the firm itself produces everything we
planned here. The office is so to speak a show-off
opportunity and the ultimate proof that nothing is
impossible.” Short break. Deep exhalation. A smile
beaming sheer delight. “A client that wants things
expensive and complicated. Sheer paradise for me as
an architect!”
An office has been developed in Navi Mumbai
for the furniture manufacturers Narsi &
Associates. Architect Sanjay Puri pulled out
all the stops and created an opulent, indeed
almost Baroque showroom that not only
visualises his client’s proficiency but gives
it palpable form as well. This is not for the
ascetic or minimalist!
© Vinesh Gandhi
You enter the extraordinary office building with the
ominous project title “Office @63” – named after
plot number 63 in the business park of Navi Mumbai
– via a lobby eleven metres high. Visitors are
meant to be ensnared and wooed already with the
first steps they take inside: you arrive at two waiting
areas via small wooden catwalks that seem to float
It scintillates and flashes and glitters and gleams and
teems like a huge, never-ending picture puzzle. On
the floor: high-gloss Grigio Armani marble from
Italy; on the walls an interplay of concrete, corten
steel, walnut veneer, square exhibition recesses and
CNC-milled light panels; finally, on the ceiling, a
pixel-type collage of acoustic panels, expressionist,
cubist-angular aluminium cassettes and hundreds of
brass tubes suspended in different lengths, revealing
© Vinesh Gandhi
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Offices from across the world
What’s on your desk?
like round wooden islands in a small lake. A spiral
staircase projects out into the room as an organic,
self-supporting sculpture connecting the three office
floors – naturally intensifying the intended visual
“wow” effect. On the other side of the lobby is an
arena with seated stands for events and larger groups
of visitors.
The offices and conference rooms are arranged like
prismatic amoebas in an organic corridor system,
freely aligned without any detectable order. These
are acoustically separated with room-high, curved
glass panes and backlit plywood walls with CNCmilled
perforation. Although the matrix formed of
circles, triangles and hexagons gives the impression
of being the result of algorithmic processes or AI,
they were actually designed by the architect himself.
© Vinesh Gandhi
“You can’t outsource everything”, says Puri. “Particularly
if it’s about poetry, elegance and human
well-being, you can’t leave the design to
machines.”
No doubt about it, Office @63 is a haven of beauty,
and it appears to offer its 120 or so office employees
a wide range of respectful, outstandingly high-quality
work options. But it also testifies to a turbo-capitalistic,
economically boosting Tiger State, which
goes for the big time and doesn’t shy away from
doing things in a big way to attain this. “Stone, concrete,
steel, bronze, brass and the play with light and
dark: there was a moment when I had my doubts
whether everything in toto wouldn’t be too much”,
remembers Sanjay Puri. “But no, it works. In fact, it
is literally tailor-made for our client and the firm’s
business model. We couldn’t have done it better or
more complicated.” The project received the Architects
Award 2022.
Wojciech Czaja
We couldn’t
have done it
better or more
complicated.
© Vinesh Gandhi
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© TU Wien
What’s on your desk,
Simon Andreas Güntner?
What’s the interface between work, office design and spatial sociology?
“During the work-at-home period in the COVID pandemic we realised
how closely these themes are connected”, says Simon Andreas Güntner,
professor at the Vienna University of Technology and head of the Sociology
Research Department. “But even in a loud and hectic open-space office
we notice how the social environment forces us to structure ourselves
when we can’t rely on external principles of order. Some people do this
with headphones, others with cat photos, whereas some do it with a very
precise work-and-break rhythm.”
Güntner himself doesn’t need to do this. His institute is in a side street behind
the Vienna University of Technology, in a stately residential building
from the time of Imperial and Royal industrial expansion. A long time
ago, this was probably a bedroom. “I can get my peace and quiet here and
concentrate wonderfully in this room.” At the moment he’s reading piles
of books, new publications on sociology, which have just come out. And
diploma theses. And PhD papers.
Güntner says the window has to stay open the whole time when he’s
working. Fresh air, birdsong, human voices. He shuts it very occasionally,
listening to punk and modern jazz while he works, the louder the better.
Wojciech Czaja
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I don’t have a particularly emotional relationship to my conference
table. I had the choice between a few models from the
university catalogue and opted for the completely white version.
Plastic chairs are out of the question for me. There were still a
couple of black wooden chairs in the University of Technology
archive.
A waste paper basket with my name on it. A bit odd, don’t you
think?
I use the small trolley case for transporting books for work at
home.
05
Looking at art thrills me anew every day: “Nevada” (2017) by
Irina Eden and Stijn Lernout, a beautiful panorama painting three
metres wide!
To be honest: I’ve no idea what kind of plant this is. At any rate,
it was waiting for me in the old office and said: “Take me with
you!”
The window is actually open the whole year round, summer and
winter. I need fresh air and the feeling I can hear life going on
outside.
I moved in here two years ago. The removal boxes are still
stacked in the corner. I think arriving somewhere is a process
lasting years.
Fortunately, many sociology books – particularly from the Suhrkamp
Publishing House – are bright and colourful. That suits me
down to the ground!
I got the cup from the Creative Bureaucracy Festival. A fantastic
event format!
“Cubed. A Secret History of the Workplace”, a really entertaining
and obligatory read for everyone planning office workplaces.
22 contact
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Office Life
Everything under control!
Success factor community management.
Community? Feel good? Happiness?
Many concepts – one meaning. A community manager
is primarily the contact person for a great variety of
issues and coordinates the concerns of all employees
in the office. The paramount objectives
include maintaining a palpable and
positive organisational culture that
is shared by everyone, also providing
support and aid in conflicts
and controlling the observance of
office policy. In addition, community
managers plan internal events, lectures
and talks and after-work activities.
Depending on the firm’s size, a feel-good
manager works full time or does this job on
the side of his main occupation.
Specific training for
community management
doesn’t exist; however,
courses and training
are available. Important
components of this task
primarily involve soft skills such as a
communicative nature, independent
and organised work, and empathy.
administration and the budgeting
of the entire office infrastructure.
A continual task is that of quality
assurance: feedback rounds with
all participants, and also the management
of the company’s external image
including public relations merge together
in the central task area represented
by the community manager.
Besides permanent further development
and improvement of the office infrastructure,
he or she continually organises
lectures, bar camps and workshops,
onboarding events and after-work
activities.
After all, the capital of the coworking space is
the sum total of space and community. Flawless
equipment, office spaces supporting activitybased
tasks, and a vital and inspiring community
spirit are the elements that form the bond between the
members and their coworking community.
© shutterstock
By now it’s the standard in coworking spaces and is becoming the
practice in more and more firms: the job of the community manager
– often called feel-good manager – is taking shape. We’ve been
doing some research on what this position entails and why it can
foster collaboration and success.
Focus on coworking.
The community manager plays a key role
in coworking spaces. When many different
persons share a workspace but don’t
actually work together directly, certain
guidelines are indispensable. Among the
common denominators of office policy
are communal rules on such themes as
cleanliness, noise, smells and manners, also
a code of behaviour for collectively used spaces and
technologies, and consensus on a clean desk policy.
The latter is particularly important in coworking
spaces in order to maintain a clean and tidy appearance.
Hence there is a need for a central person who
checks that these rules are observed, and acts as contact
person for the overall coworking community.
Besides interpersonal themes, community managers
in the coworking office also have to deal with a fair
amount of organisational tasks. For example, they are
responsible that each workplace is properly equipped.
They organise office furniture, technical hardware
and functioning Internet connections. In addition,
the community manager is in charge of rent contract
Conclusion:
Community managers act as a
communal hub in offices, particularly in
coworking spaces. When the job is carried out
conscientiously, it guarantees increasingly contented
coworkers, better structure, friction-free procedures
in working together, and thus plays a major role in
the success of the company.
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Showroom
Design meets circular economy.
To start by thinking of the end? Absolutely,
when it’s a question of investing in furniture
in a responsible way. This raises the question:
is it a sustainable solution when at the end of
their service life, products land on the rubbish
dump, are shredded, or, at best, recycled?
Anyone believing in the New Work ethos has to act
in a forward-looking way. Therefore Wiesner-Hager
has resolved to significantly reduce the consumption
of material resources and CO₂ emissions by refurbishing
veteran furniture. In the course of a circular
economy, as many components as possible of a piece
of furniture will be reused.
For the future circular economy strategy, ecological
design criteria are already being established in
product development so as to ensure the reuse of an
item of furniture. After a certain period of service,
used products can be returned. They are then disassembled,
and only the parts that are not reusable will
be recycled and replaced. The reusable components
have to be tested, cleaned and processed. After reassembly,
the furniture is ready to be used again in
the appropriate way and is a sustainable alternative to
new products – with a high quality factor. The balance
tells its own tale: through reuse, Wiesner-Hager
is decreasing CO₂ emissions and material consumption
in each case by up to eighty per cent.
furniloop:
Office Culture meets Circular Economy.
The new approach based on the circular economy
strategy is already being implemented in one of this
year’s new products by Wiesner-Hager. The name
alone of the office desk programme – furniloop –
stands for the product cycle and its components.
The desk programme consists of four different
frame types: symmetrical and asymmetrical frame,
optionally electrical and mechanical height adjustment.
The electrical adjustment version complies
ideally with the need for ergonomic workplaces: the
frequent change of position between dynamic sitting
and standing relieves the spine and relaxes the back
muscles.
Screening also plays a key role here. The fabric-covered
screen panel, suitable for pinning, is available in
two heights and screens off the work space on three
sides. This fosters peace and quiet and creates a sphere
of privacy, especially as the panel, made of recycled
polyester fibre, is superlatively sound-insulating.
Besides the purely functional aspects, the screen also
acts as a striking design element, imparting to the
desk an individual aura. In addition, the screen can
be shifted back, facilitating a simple and unobtrusive
cable arrangement between the rear of the desktop
and the screen panel.
While materials like plastic are avoided because they
do not fulfil the criteria for potential reuse, the option
of a desktop of solid oak heralds a solution that
is sustainable, emission-free and of high quality.
Design: neunzig° design
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office
culture
meets
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