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/ Interview Sevil Peach

You deal with so many different industries, corporate cultures and business processes. Isn’t it difficult to gain an in-depth understanding?

Understanding is a process based around dialogue. We conduct workshops, we hold meetings with the management, the departmental heads and the employees. These activities give us deep insights into how the company views itself and how the people view themselves within it. But at the same time, we also maintain our own perspective as an objective outside party. The more varied the opinions are, the more intensive the collaboration becomes.

Many companies have similar goals. Do your office solutions for different clients resemble one another?

It’s true to say that there are common goals across most businesses such as collaboration, communication, connection, interaction, fast decision-making and fast to market – and so today’s office design needs to support all these aspirations. Flexibility is also an important issue. A company could well change its strategy in a matter of months after its offices have been redesigned. The design should allow you to make adjustments easily rather than having to start all over. But beyond these organisational and practical qualities, we also need to address the stresses of today’s work culture by creating human, supportive and pleasurable environments. We believe offices still have to be able to offer individuality and provide intimacy for the people working in it. So, in a sense, what makes our office solutions different from one another is measured against each client’s varied range of goals, needs and desires. Therefore, we are not dogmatic: the typical open-space office is not the only solution. It only works if it meets the needs of the company. If individual offices are a better solution for the business type, if they make sense in the context, then they are justified. On the other hand, we work with a company where the CEO has his desk right in the middle of an open space office surrounded by a host of other employees. No matter what approach is taken to an office space, it has to allow the company to reach its goals under the best human and functional conditions.

You keep emphasising the word “human”. What exactly is a human office in your opinion?

To us, a human space is an environment that equally supports and makes sense to the individual and the organisation. It’s an environment that allows the individual to work within an understandable scale and landscape, as well as being light, airy, well-organised and variable. When I work at home, I sit in a place where I feel most comfortable and where I can work most effectively. I often end up at the kitchen table, sometimes I’ll work on the sofa or in bed, or in the garden if the weather is nice. Like a home, a human workplace is one that offers a variety of possibilities. In essence, what I am saying is that there is not one way of working. Work environments should recognise and reflect that we work in different ways throughout the day. They should allow us to choose the workspace and tools that best suit our tasks and they should enable people to work as individuals or in a team, in concentration or in communication.