Vodafone’s Collaborative, Social, and Mobile Amsterdam Headquarters

5 years in the making, Vodafone‘s Headquarters in Amsterdam recently opened as a model of modern workplace design. We recently discussed the need for workplace branding that goes beyond decoration – and this space does just that.

With Vodafone being a mobile company, it was clear that their office design needed to embrace mobile working and put traditional office design by the wayside. As Vodafone NL’s CEO, Jens Schulte Bockum explained, “We needed to make a big step forward in our work space to break out from traditional offices to something fresh, new, even heretical.”

At the work environment level, this desire for something different translated into space that would:

  • encourage communication and collaboration
  • live the brand by showcasing Vodafone products and mobile work
  • create a neighborhood atmosphere
  • offer social spaces for interaction
  • provide more color and light
  • support a healthy lifestyle
  • deliver a “wow” factor

Design of the headquarters was completed by OCS Workplaces, a firm that is working to harmonize traditional workstyles and cooperation with modern and emerging technology in the workplace.

The attached video cites that some 80% of work is now completed in collaboration with someone else – which means that workplaces need to be able to handle frequent meetings of all sizes. To address this, the Vodafone office features many varieties of spaces for employees to work together.

We can see from the photos that these areas are anywhere from large conference setups with full technology integration to more standard casual seating zones. One of the most interesting items was a bar-height collaboration table that doesn’t have stools, but rather a padded bar to lean against.

In terms of furnishings, the office is completely decked out in Steelcase – a choice that makes sense given their variety of technology and mobile work ready products like the RoomWizard and the Media:scape.

Though the images show a great look at the space, the video gives a much better picture of what the space is like – be sure to check it out.