Orgatec challenges traditional ways of working

ORGATEC 2018: A special event area devoted to groundbreaking forms of work

ORGATEC 2018 will devote a special event area to questioning established forms of work. The PLANT 10.1 showcase will use seven interactive scenarios to demonstrate the benefits that incorporating culture into a work environment can bring and what this means for office design.

The special event area is a collaboration with the consultancy Detecon, the creative agency Orange Council and international artists. We spoke with two of the project managers about the concept behind the showcase and groundbreaking office design.

Mr Zünkeler, the special event area PLANT 10.1 will present groundbreaking ideas for work environments at the upcoming ORGATEC. What was the idea behind this?

Bernhard Zünkeler: In many office concepts today, the sole focus is on the functional/rational level of space. The emotional/intuitive level is often neglected. Whereby these are the so-called soft factors that enfold an immense effect on the working everyday routine.

Function in association with people only works if we pay attention to this emotional level. Precisely this is what is being demonstrated on the special area.

Mr Wagner, how will you illustrate this approach in the special area?

Marc Wagner: We will design the presentation both in a programmatic way as well as in a very tangible manner. The collaboration with artists further expands the view to include the themes inspiration and creativity. For us it is about arousing the surface to life culturally.

Visitors are to be able to experience current themes such as New Work and creative & design thinking, agile working. We will do this in partnership with manufacturers, who will put the whole thing into concrete form.

So it is about the presentation of an emotional office atmosphere?

Bernhard Zünkeler: Yes, because today we are experiencing that the working environment is becoming ever fragmented as a result of digital media. The virtual world is replacing the office to an extent via the smartphone and laptop. Against this background, values such as identity and attractiveness are gaining significance.

If the team comes together in the office, the working environment has to be more than a purely functional room - because this is where the basis for the solidarity of a company is created.

Which role does the theme activity-based working play here?

Marc Wagner: Activity-based working is a central tool for carrying out the spatial change of classic ways of working through to New Work. Because ultimately it means freeing oneself from hierarchical structures when designing the working environment.

Instead an environment is created which offers optimal conditions for the different activities and ways of working of the employees. We are particularly going to demonstrate this at ORGATEC with regards to creativity, inspiration and collaboration.

Should modern office design be less geared towards efficiency?

Bernhard Zünkeler: If the design outline for the workplace looks more and more like the organisation of the hard drive of a computer, one should start becoming sceptical. The current alignment towards efficiency that is strongly oriented on aspects such as discipline, logic and concentration are currently being put on the test bench.

In future a leap forward in efficiency will be achieved through creativity, non-linear processes and the inclusion of random factors.

Marc Wagner is managing partner and member of the Management Board at Detecon Consulting.
Dr Bernhard Zünkeler is a doctor of law and a partner of the communications agency Orange Council.

The provisional programme for PLANT 10.1 at ORGATEC can be found online here.