Many companies today are only really busy for two or three days. So how do you plan a canteen or company restaurant that still pays for itself - and looks and works well?
Many companies today are faced with the question of how to get their employees out of their home offices and into the office. A good catering service is an important argument for many people to come into the company voluntarily. Another issue is the use of catering areas outside the traditional meal times. The aim here is to activate what are usually very large areas throughout the day. One option is to open the catering facilities to the public. One example is our ‘La Visione’ restaurant, which we designed for carpet manufacturer Object Carpet. During the day it is a staff restaurant and co-working space, and in the evening it is a popular Italian restaurant, wine bar and event venue. The concept, which we developed long before Corona, has since won numerous awards and been published around the world. We believe that all these aspects justify the investment in attractive company restaurants and cafeterias.
How important is catering as a meeting place in the modern working environment? And what is the best way to organise this meeting place - even if not everyone is there every day?
A company’s catering areas are the central communication platforms beyond the meeting rooms. The design of common areas should take into account as many scenarios as possible: from intimate conversations at a table for two to long tables and venues for small and large events. Smart zoning and flexible furniture are the first ingredients. It’s not just about moving chairs. With mobile room dividers, areas can be scaled as required to create the right atmosphere for the occasion. The canteen can be used for a company-wide town hall meeting, but it is also the perfect place for a chat over an afternoon coffee.
What does New Work mean for office and catering planning? What concepts are suitable for hybrid working models - i.e. a mixture of home office and office presence?
As mentioned earlier, company catering is not a home office activity, but an important part of working in the office. Employees appreciate a quality catering service – and it is a selling point in the search for the best specialists. One of our customers, for example, uses a Michelin-starred restaurant for its company catering – a unique selling point in the battle to attract the region’s highly sought-after IT specialists.
As a ‘new work’ proposition, the staff restaurant works mainly because of the quality of time spent outside meal times. Coffee is served here from a drip machine rather than a vending machine on the floor. The atmosphere is welcoming and perhaps even cosy, making you more likely to open your laptop in the cafeteria than at your desk. You will find places to retreat as well as communicative or collaborative environments. These spaces often provide the right atmosphere for informal dialogue or the development of creative ideas. One example of this is the Working Café at Beiersdorf, a popular meeting place where people can get together throughout the day.
Nowadays, a lot of things are digital: pre-ordering by app, self-checkout, smart technology. How do you still manage to create a welcoming atmosphere - more of a restaurant than just a shop?
Digital workflows and smart technology enable faster processes and efficient resource planning. They also provide real value to staff by helping to reduce waiting times. This leaves more ‘time to eat’ and more net time to relax.
Two projects show that system catering can make itself largely invisible. The ‘Campus Garden’ on the educational campus of the Schwarz Foundation in Heilbronn is a high-quality alternative to the canteen during the day. For evening and weekend restaurant operations, refrigerated display cabinets and vending machines are concealed behind electric shutters. In the Wack Group’s restaurant, the crockery return area disappears behind a sliding wall and filters block the view of the kitchen area.
How important is it to involve future users - employees or catering teams - in the planning? And what is the best way of doing this in your experience?
We prefer to start planning work environments with workshops that involve the client and their staff in the design process. We find out how and where they want to work in the future and what kind of places they want to work in. This allows us to identify early on whether certain communication requirements can be integrated into the catering areas and whether the space can be used more efficiently. We can also discuss whether to serve curry sausage or vegan schnitzel. In addition, on-site visits to our reference projects are often a real eye-opener and door-opener. And of course, close cooperation with the catering operator is a prerequisite for functioning processes. The catering operator’s operational concept plays an important role here, for example, in ensuring that the specialist kitchen planning finds the right place for the pizza oven.
