Innovative office concepts
Working in a cozy and inspiring shared office atmosphere? You don’t need to move or stay at home, just come to the Dreso shared office. The Drees & Sommer office in Berlin has an unusual and surprising office concept.
Example of a innovative office concept
My father was self-employed and always enjoyed working in his “boss’s office,” as he jokingly called it. He could smoke in peace and manage his company there. He even went to work on Saturdays and often didn’t come back until the afternoon. His office was rather functional: bare walls and a desk littered with piles of paper and full ashtrays. But he must have liked it there.
Of course, it was a different time. Today, we expect more from an office than peace and quiet and an ashtray. Decades later, and partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have brought the office home. And for many people, working at home means being able to work in a place they feel comfortable and being extremely flexible. So, what else can we do to entice people into the office? Today’s workplaces have to offer more than just gray desks and white walls with the mandatory wall calendar.
How about bringing home to the office? We have a comfortable sofa area, walls full of bookshelves, soft carpets, and a cozy kitchen with a seating area where people not only have parties, but also cook together. People can have random conversations at the coffee machine, an after-work aperitif together, and spontaneous brainstorming sessions at the table football table. Does this sound like a cool shared apartment? It is—and it’s at Drees & Sommer in Berlin.
Shared office as an innovative office concept
The best way to describe the interior of this special shared office on Bundesallee in Berlin’s Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district is colorful, with furniture that could have come from both a parent’s and a teenager’s room, and put together with care and attention. Dreso-WG (Dreso shared office) is not only written on the doorbell, but also in large letters next to the green entrance door. It has a mailbox and all the things you would expect from a shared apartment.
Markus Weigold, Partner at Drees & Sommer, explains how the Dreso shared office came about: “The idea came about during the Covid-19 pandemic. We needed more space and found an area in our building that was very angular, like in a typical old Berlin building.” The idea was not to convert these into boring office cells, but to use the special floor plan as the basis for an unusual redesign. These measures were intended to create an incentive for colleagues to come back to the office.
What does a good office look like?
The furnishings have become as diverse as the Dresos, with Cradle to Cradle® carpets, plush armchairs, and lots of small individual details more reminiscent of a home than an office. Colleagues also like to come here when they don’t have appointments. From their own home to their home in the office, so to speak. Dresos can make phone calls, write, and exchange ideas at 16 workstations. This is collaboration and new work par excellence. This is home to many teams that do not have their fixed desks and departments on the other floors of the building.
Every Dreso can book a place in the shared office: “Everyone comes together here, whether intern or partner. Regardless of hierarchical level, there’s room for everyone,” says Markus Weigold, promoting the shared office. "I’m sure my father would have liked the Dreso shared office too. Fortunately, it didn’t exist back then. Otherwise, he would certainly have gone to the “boss’s office” more often. The office went home. Now we’ve brought home to the office.”
Markus Weigold, Partner Drees & Sommer
When does a shared office make sense as an office concept?
Drees & Sommer’s Dreso shared office in Berlin impressively demonstrates that a shared apartment as an office concept can be more than just a fad. A shared apartment as an office concept is successful if it is not just a trendy appearance, but also meets the needs of employees and the requirements of the modern working world. In particular, angled floor plans, which are often found in old buildings, invite you to convert rooms into a shared apartment.
In addition to the structural properties, the corporate culture and the way in which people work together must be aligned with the shared office concept. If extremely traditional and conservative companies try to give themselves a modern look with a shared office, they will fail. However, within a change process, a shared office concept can be a pilot project that proves that we are moving toward a new work culture.
Ultimately, if the work and corporate culture and the existing building structures fit, it is worth creating such a unique working environment with the shared office concept. It is a working environment that combines the charm of a shared apartment with the functional requirements of a modern office. The Dreso shared office is not only a space for work, but also a place for inspiration, exchange, and community. This makes it a sensible alternative to traditional office structures.
