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Beiersdorf Working Café and Campus RestaurantHamburg, 2018–2023

Canteen? Communication Hub!

Expertises

Beiersdorf Working Café and Campus Restaurant

If innovation today is primarily defined by collaboration and communication, then meeting places are amongst the most important spaces in an innovative work environment. It’s a well-established fact that an unpremeditated exchange of ideas over a cup of coffee or a snack can lead to inspiring results – after all, the best parties always happen in the kitchen. The Working Café and Campus Restaurant at Beiersdorf, however, shows the true extent to which a transparent, networked and lively communication hub can enrich agile work practices. As the centrepiece of its headquarters, the new entrance area with its inviting message not only develops a radiance that projects deep into the company, it also represents Beiersdorf’s corporate values and culture to the outside world.

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A welcoming culture that embraces
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Diversity that promotes community
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Encounters in interstitial spaces
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Plans
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Facts & Figures
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Awards & Publications

A welcoming culture that embraces

With the restructuring of the Beiersdorf site in Hamburg’s city centre, a new campus has been created that not only spatialises the company’s work philosophy on all levels, but also focuses on communication as a driver of innovation, while fostering community. Across a total of 51,000 square metres, including 4,000 square metres of collaborative space and 3,200 workstations, we have developed an agile landscape for around 3,000 employees that extends beyond planned processes and allows room for the unexpected or unplanned, while celebrating diversity across the board. The linchpin of the entire site is the entrance level with its Working Café and Campus Restaurant: Here we have created an open environment where employees and guests can engage in informal dialogue throughout the day – a welcoming gesture that benefits everyone. This not only demonstrates appreciation for the company, but also creates an identity-forming, dynamic place that fulfils the corporate purpose of ‘Care Beyond Skin’, while at the same time providing a vital breeding ground for new collaborative ideas.

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[Translate to English:] Beiersdorf AG Beiersdorf Working Café and Campus Restaurant l1 3

Diversity that promotes community

To create a consistent spatial image, we translated Beiersdorf’s core values – care, simplicity, courage and trust – into an interior design characterised by natural materials and green foliage, a pleasant feel, simple geometries and, above all, the motif of skin. Expansive elements in various shades of skin colour can be found in all areas, confidently complementing the corporate colours of blue and white to create a uniform design language. Beginning with the generous reception area, which, as a central, open-plan area, reveals first tantalising glimpses of the Working Café behind it, through to the Campus Restaurant, which is located at the rear of the ground floor: The warm, varying tones create a gentle touch that becomes an intimate embrace. Circular shapes interrupt this harmonious softness at repeated intervals: as upright, translucent filters or as room dividers suspended from the sculptural wooden ceiling, they zone the café; as irregular, large-scale structures in the slatted ceiling, they in turn enliven the atmosphere of the restaurant.

[Translate to English:] Beiersdorf AG Beiersdorf Working Café and Campus Restaurant l2 2

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Encounters in interstitial spaces

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Arranged along a long, partly digital and partly green boulevard, the café and restaurant offer diverse opportunities for encounters: The café is made up of lounges for smaller groups, circular, stepped stages for spontaneous meetings with a better overview, a centre bar for quick exchanges, and alcoves along the façade for more discreet conversations or concentrated work with a view of the garden. The restaurant, on the other hand, is dominated by groups of tables that demonstrate diversity in combination with various seating options – from chairs, armchairs and high stools to spacious pods and alcoves. A long community table focusses the space, encouraging employees to identify with their team, their surroundings and with the company.

As the restaurant, unlike the café, is also used for large events, it is designed to be easily reconfigured in a few simple steps: The furniture can be rearranged or removed as required, the metal ring curtains pushed aside, and the previously sequenced space reorganised. This turns the Campus Restaurant into a flexible space that transforms collaborative interaction, unplanned encounters and dynamic communication into an inspiring experience.