Handelsblatt Media Group Offices – Dusseldorf
TWO space+product was trusted with the design of the new offices for Handelsblatt Media Group located in Düsseldorf, Germany.
A whole world of business – the Handelsblatt Media Group with its 1000 employees – takes up a forward-looking working environment of 20.000sqm in their new headquarters in Düsseldorf. It presents itself as a space particularly conducive to communicative encounters, with a special emphasis on chances for people to meet. Our design goals strived to support the promotion of economic expertise with a tangibly exceptional interior architecture. In addition, this architecture lets the visitor experience first hand the identity of print and online brands, in the context of the digitalization of media. For example, we implement the design premise of Handelsblatt journalism in three dimensions (on paper, as digital content and live). In the design of the foyer and the restaurant and town hall areas: Right from the start, the foyer shows the interplay of the analog and digital realm. For example, a round meeting point and attached swap meet for analog print media constitute a static counterpoint to a dynamic multi media wall two stories high. The adjacent area, the town hall, is a meeting place with a central open forum, specially lit. The multi functional seating area is set against a long table cafe bar, which is illuminated impressively by an installation of 400 floating wine glasses. Benches with presentation spaces and an integrated lounge grid the entire room.
A room deciding portal made from copper, integrated with a dividing glass wall, sets the town hall apart from the restaurant. In the restaurant, large moveable dividing copper screens separate the food counters, as well as the main space, from focus rooms on the other side of the room. These visibly detached seating lounges offer a possibility to retreat, to eat, or to discuss. The town hall and restaurant areas can be combined for larger events. Our modular and mobile architecture thus allows flexible options for various types of gatherings and conventions.
Black and white, the classic colors of the printing press, are the main colours in our concept. Black and reflecting interior finishes enlarge the rooms visually and creating a seemingly infinite space that the guest becomes a part of. Grey is the color of the basalt and polyurethane floors, where it serves as a quiet, spacious background against which other visual elements are set: The corporate identity colours red and orange place accents against this background. The orange elements are taken up in copper sheets, which, together with whitewashed birch plywood, form spatial elements. These two materials also allude to printing presses and printing papers in our design.
Design: TWO space+product
Photography: Nicole Zimmermann
