Cantine in the Zentralverband des deutschen Handwerks, Berlin
Client: Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks, Berlin
Planning: Antje Großmann, smow Berlin & Dörte Grau, GrauDesign
Year: 2022
Areas furnished: Canteen
Project specification: Redesign of a canteen
Brief
A quick coffee or a lunch with colleagues - the canteen is "the place to be" in every company, and also the place to recharge your batteries, to gather strength and the meeting place for all employees where news is exchanged, projects are discussed or work is stopped and paused. The basis of the team.
However, if the furnishings are getting on in years and do not invite you to actively relax, and a pandemic is doing the rest, the room will, accordingly, be deserted. Thus the aim was to bring the unattractive break room and the adjoining hall back to life and to make the canteen usable as a meeting point for lunch and small meetings. Soft drinks as well as a small range of meals should be possible in the future.
Following the successfully completed conversion and redesign of the open-plan office of the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH), the framework had been created to develop a modern, structured room setting for large-scale cooperation: now a similarly pro-active break area was needed for employees.
The greatest challenge in the implementation of "life-giving measures" to the tired space was to find a good symbiosis between contemporaneousness and tradition in the listed building.
Project Management
Realisation
The focus of the realization was the symbiosis between modernity and tradition in the listed building. The Central Association of German Crafts decided to live up to its name and incorporate individually design for benches and tables, which underline the epoch of the house in Mohrenstrasse without imitating it. Standing tables, cupboards and shelves were also designed and manufactured by hand.
The counter, which was completely redesigned including the tiles and technology, is both an eye-catcher and a communication element. The catering needs also required a rethinking of the storage space, so special solutions tailored to the room were implemented.
In addition to those components that draw attention to the division and furnishing of the room, the lighting and electrical planning has also undergone a complete update and the acoustics have been redesigned. A pleasant spatial sound was also required that allowed disturbing noises to recede into the background: for this reason, the walls were covered with wooden panels, the design of which was adapted to the general look and feel of the room and the open-plan office. The other materials used, the products and colours were also designed and selected in close coordination with existing and epochal elements.
Project Synopsis
Having re-conceived and re-designed the lobby space of the Haus des Deutschen Handwerks, the experts from smow Berlin were subsequently entrusted with makeover and re-invigorating of the canteen .
The integrated concept to bring the old lifeless canteen room back was realised with individual storage space solutions, professional acoustic, lighting and electrical planning as well as a coordinated colour concept - everything taking into account contemporary design aspects, but always in keeping with the venerable nature of the house.
The break room is now once again a lively meeting point for employees, who can simply feel at home there thanks to the new room structure, equipment and acoustic solution.
Similar Projects
Zentrale des Deutschen Handwerks, Berlin
The lobby of an office building is a company's calling card; a first impression reconceived for the two associations BDI and BDA.
LKG, Leipzig
Like an unwritten book the empty new office building in Rötha-Espenhain near Leipzig was waiting to be filled with ideas, content and interior design life. Furnishing solutions were created that combined efficiency and a feel-good factor.
Tailored project planning with smow
Together with you smow design meaningful office solutions and planning approaches for your spaces. Interior or exterior. In cooperation with our architects and interior designers, we take care of your project from conception to implementation, so that you can continue to work productively and relaxed in the future. The smow planning team can be reached from Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. on +49 341 2222 88 66 or by email at project@smow.ch