Sandro, everyone’s talking about new work environments. What do they look like at BEAM?

In general, buildings must pursue two objectives: Giving employees the opportunity to organise their working day freely and promoting communication and motivation. To achieve this, there are various ways of organising.

In addition to assigned workstations, there must be a free choice to react to projects in a flexible manner, reorganise teams and design one’s own working environment. So the motto is: Get out of the comfort zone! More rooms with “savoir-vivre”! The soft factors then serve to strengthen unity and cooperation. Depending on the corporate culture, ball pits or a pool table can also be used for this

In your design, you are, so to speak, putting the crown on the historical core. How is new lustre created on old stone?

The existing building plays a central role in our design. In the course of its history, it has suffered war damage and does not all parts correspond to the original state of construction. We preserve the original façade and rebuild what was added from the 1960s onwards.

The purpose of the extension is to make the contrast of the old-new visible on the outside. The division of the façade reflects the existing building, which is very detailed with natural stones, cornices and friezes. In contrast, the new building, as a reduced glass body, has a double façade with as few details as possible. Through the planned two-layer design – the homogeneous glass level on the outside and the functional façade in a second layer on the inside – the new building speaks a reduced language, appears pure, which makes the whole ensemble radiate.

The country needs intelligent and sustainable buildings. What is BEAM doing for this?

We are striving for LEED certification with BEAM. This includes the sustainability of the building materials used, the possibility to reach the building in an environmentally friendly way by private and public transport to the workplace and to create healthy workplace conditions. In addition, we will avoid over-engineering and reduce the technical effort to the bare essentials.