The Innovation Center forms the core of our Innovation Network. It is complemented by our hubs, labs and units. These are located at our various sites, and they focus on addressing a range of topics.

Hubs are physical spaces located at Drees & Sommer sites. They are each dedicated to their own specific topic. As central nodes in our ecosystem, they have close connections with relevant participants representing the worlds of science, startups, and the market. Units and labs are skill-based teams that work on innovations within a specific topic area, but don't (yet) have their own facilities to offer to the topic in question.

Our Innovation Hub is situated in a former industrial bookbinder's premises at the Drees & Sommer Campus in Stuttgart. Space is offered here to colleagues, customers and external companies, such as startups or partners in cooperation, to facilitate collaboration and development of innovative projects. With its combination of innovative building technology, future-oriented working environments and sustainable conversion, it also fulfills the functions of a showroom and a test area.

This Innovation Hub provides the physical headquarters of our multi-location Innovation Center, and the home base for our Creators, our innovation ecosystem for the construction and real-estate industry. However, more than that, it is also the place where we address digitalization of existing business models and answer pertinent questions about the future. This is part of the process of creating innovative solutions and bringing them out from our headquarters in Stuttgart to our other locations, our various projects and our customers worldwide.

Our Startup Hub has a useful location in the German capital, one of the central hotspots for the international startup and innovation scene. It's simultaneously a think tank, a creative lab and a playground for developing ideas and facilitating cooperation between Drees & Sommer, our customers and partners, and startups and established businesses.

The hub provides ways for us to maintain our network of connections with the national and international startup scene, with our partners for innovation, and with hubs of other companies, at the same time as we actively promote innovation. We provide spaces for the creative development of ideas and practical testing of technology and innovation. We support pilot projects with startups on an equal footing.

We're also reliable as a partner for established businesses undergoing rapid growth. We support companies individually, adapting our services to your requirements. So you can concentrate on your core business and your growth, while we provide specific support services in everything relating to your office and your real estate - we speak your language.

STARTUP HUB BERLIN - OUR OBJECTIVES

1. Formation and maintenance of a network of connections in the startups and innovation scene, scouting for promising startups and technology partners, and maintaining a visible presence in Berlin, as an international hotspot of innovation

2. A location for testing, supporting and evaluating startup solutions, as well as different approaches to digitalization and technology options in pilot projects

3. Startup Hub Berlin with the Innovation Experience Lab offers hands-on experience, testing innovations, technology and startup solutions and making them tangible for our employees, partners and customers; a space for working on innovations and future-focused topics

4. A point of contact for established business and unicorns for all office and real-estate matters 

Drees & Sommer has a Customized Smart Building Hub located at the Aachen University RWTH Campus. This is an ideal location to allow our colleagues to maintain direct contact with the scientific community and with companies - and also to use the rooms as a live demonstration space to present innovations in and around smart buildings.

Drees & Sommer has also entered into a close partnership with the Center Smart Commercial Building - we are a registered member - also located on this campus. The primary areas of interest here are software-based solutions for commercial properties, optimization of facility management services and rapid development of marketable components and solutions. The focus is always firmly on added value for the users of the building.

Drees & Sommer experts working at the hub never pursue digital technologies as an end in themselves. Along with their partners in research and cooperation, they view digital building technology as a tool to obtain improvements in processes and in the experience of a building's users. They also focus on ensuring that buildings can be operated sustainably, and they support customers to develop their own new business models. The hub therefore develops Customized Smart Buildings that are precisely tailored to work with the needs of the users. 

The Drees & Sommers Sustainability Hub is located in a multiple award-winning green building at Obere Waldplätze 11 in Stuttgart. This is where colleagues, customers and companies all come together to develop innovations in the fields of sustainability and economic efficiency. With its use of materials based on Cradle to Cradle® (C2C), its future-oriented working environments and efficient building technology, this hub also fulfills the functions of a living showroom and a testing lab - always looking ahead to the future of cities and districts as Blue Cities.

All the main building materials in the hub were tested to ensure that they carry no health risk, and are pollutant-free and recyclable. This not only creates a better interior environment for users, but will also be better for the natural environment during dismantling. Special acoustic absorbing elements were modified specifically for office use. They also have a surface that neutralizes odors and volatile substances. A green wall contributes to creating a pleasant interior environment and brings the living world into the hub. The office furniture and carpet tiles are fully recyclable, and the latter also capture and retain fine dust from the air.

The highly insulated facade with triple-glazed windows represents a massive saving in heating requirements. Efficient concrete core temperature control effectively turns the ceilings into large-area radiators. Using geothermal energy significantly lowers energy requirements and CO2 emissions.

We know that the days of most people working in an office are over, but as a source of identity and a point of reference for a company's branding, the office building is more important now than it's ever been. Recent history has also shown us how fast our certainties can dissolve and new requirements can rise up.

With our revitalization of the Drees & Sommer site in Bavaria, we've created a showcase area of more than 3,600 square meters, across two floors, enabling and encouraging future-proof ways of working.

Our users are always at the center of our considerations, and that's why we're seeking interdisciplinary exchanges at the New Work Hub in Munich with our customers and partners, with those in science and education, and with those who embrace, speak about and drive new ways of thinking. It's useful to look at the changing world of work from as many perspectives as possible, and to work together with dialog to develop visions and approaches that can help to make this process successful.

Regardless of whether we're talking about sustainability and well-being, or new leadership or employer branding, we need all disciplines to come to the table, to discuss the urgent issues of our time. We look forward to exchanging ideas and inspiring each other.