Katrin Jacobs: "Which working environment makes us feel most comfortable also depends on our personal preferences"

Katrin Jacobs: Since the pandemic, remote work has firmly established itself in many industries. Companies are wondering how to create incentives for employees to return to the office—because the physical office is still an important meeting place for creative collaboration and interaction. From our perspective, the potential lies especially in the social dimension. Instead of organizing offices around hierarchies as before, we are now designing open working concepts that are highly communicative and flexible. Above all, the undefined space between workstations and meeting rooms, the so-called "third space", is crucial. It promotes unplanned encounters and allows employees to network better with each other.

There is no fixed design catalog at HENN. In the design process, we ask ourselves how we can best translate the corporate values into spaces. In the end, an individual design emerges that was developed from the objectives and tailored to the specific requirements of the client. It can be round, square, open, or closed.

Before a concrete design is created, we start with analyzing the task, the so-called programming. In joint workshops and interviews with the client, we immerse ourselves in the respective corporate culture and collaboratively and thoroughly develop the needs and aims of the users. From this, we develop a guiding principle that serves as our basis for the design.

For the House of Communication in Munich, for example, the goal was to create a unifying visual identity for the Serviceplan Group, which consists of around 40 agencies. The idea of communication and integration also assumes a functional dimension in the form of oversized pieces of furniture, which were custom-made as modified individual pieces. For example, a 30-meter-long, bright red sofa in the entrance area can accommodate 100 people simultaneously, and 80 people can sit at the long wooden table in the cafeteria.

We are currently experimenting with various AI tools to find out what processes the technology can support us with. In the early phase of a design process, AI can, for example, serve as a source of inspiration and expand the solution space. However, what AI has not yet been able to do is abstract the results and bring them together into one solution. Currently, we see more potential regarding automated, plannable activities, such as highly complex construction processes during execution or optimizing buildings in terms of sustainability. 

The well-being of people is at the heart of every spatial design. Factors such as acoustics, lighting, and indoor climate play a role in this. However, which working environment makes us feel most comfortable depends not only on the quality of the interior design and furniture but also on our personal preferences. That's why it is important that we give everyone the creative freedom to decide for themselves which way of working best suits their needs.

The Munich office initially consisted of just a few office rooms in the front building and has expanded over time to neighboring buildings. This evolved and dynamic energy can be clearly felt in the office, where the atmosphere and activities are very lively and sometimes a bit chaotic. I prefer to work with my team at large tables, which is very meaningful for the creative process. Many meetings are now held either hybrid or entirely online, which is why the need for retreat options in the office has increased. Currently, we are working on creating more such possibilities, for example phone booths.

World-Architects is content partner of Messe Frankfurt.