Sound Consulting and Efficient Planning

In line with the principles of a management consultancy, the search for new premises was embedded in an analytical process to which we brought our specialist expertise. Firstly, we evaluated commercial tenant building specifications for five possible locations and used test fits to check the capacities of the respective floor plans. Once the right location had been chosen, the Global Design Goals of BCG’s corporate headquarters were adapted for the Stuttgart location. On one hand, needs and wishes for the spatial concept were collected and prioritised in multiple workshops with BCG employees in Stuttgart. On the other, the guidelines of the corporate headquarters had to be incorporated, which specify a distribution key for spaces, conference and office areas, based on the number of employees at the location.

Accordingly, we developed a spatial programme that makes the best possible use of the available space and reacts flexibly to changing requirements with rooms that can change their character. Case Team rooms are available to project teams of several people and can be used for work as well as for discussion purposes. While Convertible Offices can be used both as individual workstations or as meeting rooms. Even the partners’ permanently assigned offices can be used in this way when they are otherwise unoccupied. The Phone Rooms are places of quiet retreat: for telephone calls, 1:1 meetings or concentrated work. A digital room booking system organises the highly dynamic occupancy of the respective rooms. The technical equipment in all rooms is state of the art; the latest conference technology ensures optimum conference quality, whether the meeting is virtual or physical.

The new office location is in an existing building in the centre of Stuttgart. We emphasised sustainability in the refurbishment, meaning that both the building services and raised floor could largely be reused. And acoustic ceiling louvres made from recycled PET bottles set a sustainable example on the ceilings.

The two floors are connected by a newly built internal staircase. Its geometrical metal plates, transparent glass panels and a colour scheme borrowed from BCG’s CI make it a radiant symbol of the consultancy’s brand identity at the heart of the office. Communication beyond the project teams takes place in the areas around this staircase. The reception is located on the upper floor with a waiting area that is also used by employees. On the lower levels, the staircase is flanked on one side by a kitchen and on the other by a large desk, separated only by a curtain.

These communication areas are all the more important as the actual work of the consultancy takes place behind closed doors for reasons of discretion and concentration. The Social Heart, immediately adjacent to the reception, is of particular importance here; it can be extended by a mobile partition wall to comprise the neighbouring meeting room, if required. Here you will find the best coffee and well-stocked fridges and sweet treat supplies: a charging station for when your energy stores run low, so to speak. And in good weather, you can enjoy a breath of fresh air against a city backdrop on the adjoining terrace.

Communication and collaboration are also key in the Ideation Room, which can be extended by a mobile partition wall system. Almost everything here is movable so as to get thought processes moving: whether screen, whiteboard, couch or table. The room is also perfectly illuminated with area-wide ambient light, while spotlights illuminate the whiteboards, so not a dash is lost.