What a wonderful life popular employers have. Especially when employers put in as much effort into workplace design as is the case with the new high-rise project by Düsseldorf’s HPP Architekten.
Poor little capital city: Düsseldorf is lacking a bit of pretty much everything. Right now, they don’t have enough staff or space to provide current employees with suitable offices. But what’s causing employers trouble is to the benefit of employees, who feel more cared for architecturally than ever. With the old L’Oréal headquarters running out of space and going out of style, the company opted to relocate into an approved but not yet built high-rise project based on plans by HPP Architekten – just a few hundred metres away. After all, if the new office is suddenly a few more stops away from the old office, you risk losing staff. It’s just as dangerous to change trusted office routines. Employees must see the new one as an improvement over the old.
Coherent design
In the case of L’Oréal, they left their individual offices, moving into an open space – and were forced to do away with several much loved traditions. The success of this operation can surely be attributed to the architecture, interior design and all the effort put into the project. Employees of the corporation are now situated in an emblematic high-rise in a prominent location. The contemporary facade with horizontally displaced stories is a good fit for the company, which is also active in the world of fashion. And because HPP also won the interior design competition, it had the opportunity to provide a coherent design in and out. The foyer is worthy of the L’Oréal name, while customers are trained in how to use their countless products on the academy floor above, with the restaurant and cafeteria another floor above that. The uniform storeys of offices are stacked on top of them, rounded off by the conference and event level on the 15th floor. Think tanks and meeting rooms, phone booths and silent rooms – the landing zone at the beginning of each floor offers (just about) everything that belongs in a modern office nowadays. It’s up to each individual to decide whether they want to work alone or in teams, sitting or standing – hammocks are still reserved for Google offices. The employees lost their printers and water bottles – in exchange for a clean, ecological conscience. But the free water carbonator replaces around 90,000 PET bottles a year, and now that there are only two printers per floor, the company is using a lot less paper.
The entrance area at the German L‘Oréal headquarters.
Deliberate heterogeneity
Custom-made furniture, sophisticated acoustics with panels and varying surfaces make for an atmosphere that can easily be called “cosy”. The interior design uses its deliberate heterogeneity to work against the corporate design wasteland often found elsewhere. And as the workplace layout no longer displays any visible hierarchy, the teams were given rooms for group decision-making and tailored spaces. The “style” of the various entrance areas was left to the employees of that floor–provided they stay within the scope of the carefully planned “modern style” and “vintage look” settings. Was it worth it? Those responsible, at least, say yes. After all, the relocation boosted efficiency – and above all, no staff were lost.
The lavish foyer characterised by modern elegance.
The canteen and hairdresser academy are located in the lower part of the building.
Employees can work without interruption in the silent area, where speaking is forbidden.
Furniture and lights provide interior design accents.
Left: The open offices are characterised by cosiness.
Right: Workstations are situated at the all-glass facades. Meeting points are set up at the core.
Below: No two meeting points are identical, as the employees were able to design them – to a certain extent.
Hörmann expertise:
Block frames
The concept of the L‘Oréal headquarters is based on motion. Assigned workstations? Only when necessary. High team interaction? The goal. Spaces characterised by movement and exchange require robust doors. Hörmann steel doors are just the right answer, fitted in the halls of storeys 3 to 15. The fire-retarding T30 STS steel doors feature a block frame. As the frames are backfilled with mineral wool at the factory, they do not require mortar, enabling faster and cleaner fitting. Anti-panic locks ensure barrier-free escape routes, and a retractable bottom seal provides protection against smoke in case of fire. Aluminium tubular frame parts with T30 approval for outdoors are also installed in the ground floor of the building. These generally feature large glass surfaces. But for a level, high-quality door appearance, they were equipped with aluminium panels. This also increases the already excellent thermal insulation to a UD-value of 1.1 W/(m²·K).
The T30 STS steel doors feature a mortar-free block frame.
STS doors – fitted with block frames.
The tubular frame parts feature an additional aluminium panel for a flush appearance.
Location: Johannstraße 1, Düsseldorf, DE
Hörmann products: Multi-function doors H3, H16, D65; aluminium tubular frame parts for outside application HE 311 – El2 30, HE 321 – El2 30; T30 steel doors STS
Floor plan of the ground floor
Layout
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