contact_magazine_#35_EN

Edition 35 

The architecture of hospitality: 

Setting the stage for synergy. 

AKoS Collaboration Center. 

Office culture put to the test. 

Hotels from around the 

world: NoMad London.

Conferences with 

a living-room feel. 

The days of only providing the basics, in traditional multipurpose rooms, 

completely lacking in atmosphere and character, are over! The conference 

rooms of the future will have to be warm, plush and really cosy. This means 

that, to succeed in today’s event industry, you need to be inspired! Our 

cover story looks behind the scenes at these new “settings for synergy”. 

Next come some useful ideas for travellers. Equipped with those, off we go 

to an unusual business centre. We learn about a smart idea for co-working 

which offers an alternative to working at home and rekindles team spirit. 

Then we go with Anna and Nils Schnell on a whirlwind tour of 34 countries 

and four continents and visit more than 130 companies. The couple 

have looked into modern ways of working, the world over. They share their 

findings and experiences with us in a fascinating interview. 

If you’re going to travel very far, you’ll need a hotel: and we didn’t just 

check in with the NH Group, the third largest provider in the business 

hotel sector – we fitted out the hotels with some of our bestsellers. 

We also have a few useful tips for dealing with some of the old contentious 

issues regarding office culture. And then we take a critical look at jogging 

bottoms, the new laid-back approach to the office dress code and wearing a 

collar and tie: is it really becoming a pain in the neck for some people? 

Last but not least, we let Generation Z have a word – after all, they are our 

future! 

So now, pack a little spare time in your bag and come with us on a journey 

through these exciting times. 

Laura and Markus Wiesner

The architecture of hospitality ............................... 04 

Trend Watching: Useful ideas for travellers ........... 07 

Interview: Horst Heinzmann .................................. 08 

Anna and Nils Schnell on Modern Work Tour .......... 10 

Reference story: NH Hotel Group .......................... 12 

Office culture put to the test ................................. 14 

Dress code for the office ....................................... 16 

IT solutions for shared desks ................................. 18 

Hotels from around the world: NoMad London ..... 20 

What’s on your desk, Michaela Wolf? ................... 23 

Generation Z: All change in the world of work ...... 24 

Showroom ............................................................. 26 

Publisher: Wiesner-Hager Möbel GmbH, Linzer Strasse 22, A-4950 Altheim, T +43/(0)7723/460-0, altheim@wiesner-hager.com, www.wiesner-hager.com, thinknewwork.com; 

concept/editor: Wiesner-Hager, mintmind Communication GmbH; layout: mintmind Communication GmbH; guest author: Wojciech Czaja; 

no liability accepted for typesetting and printing errors; 11/2022. 

contact 3

Hospitality Concepts 

Setting the 

stage for 

synergy. 

Hotels play an important role in providing the 

market with meeting and conference facilities. 

However, thanks to COVID and the ever-increasing 

digitalisation of business communications, 

the situation has changed dramatically. Here we 

take an encouraging, inspiring look at the conference 

rooms of the future. 

It’s like sitting in a factory loft through which a quick 

blast of Modern Talking and Miami Vice has just 

blown for a few seconds. On the one hand, big factory 

windows, exposed Spiro ventilation ducts and a 

rather rough ceiling made of grey insulated boards. 

On the other, dark, concrete-grey walls 

and a grey and purple checked carpet 

in a chessboard design that looks a 

bit like an unfortunate post-modern, 

chromatic aberration. All that’s missing 

are the clouds of smoke from which 

Thomas Anders and Don Johnson will 

suddenly emerge. “The days of only 

providing the basics, in traditional multipurpose 

rooms, completely lacking 

in atmosphere and character, are over”, 

says Erich Bernard, Managing Partner 

at Vienna-based architects BWM. 

“Before COVID, when the conference 

hospitality sector was still riding high 

and demand exceeded what the market 

could supply, there wasn’t really any competition. 

But in a very short time, COVID has turned a 

supplier’s market into a buyer’s market. To succeed 

in today’s event industry, you need to be inspired!” 

A few months ago, BWM finished the new Hotel 

Gilbert in the Breite Gasse, just a stone’s throw from 

Vienna’s museums district, and in September there 

was an Open House event to show off the refurbishment 

project. The hotel, a crossover between “urban 

stay” and “industrial luxury”, has 56 rooms and, at 

its heart, a glass-roofed, light-filled lobby with a bar, 

restaurant and cosy chill-out lounge, complete with 

fireplace and retro tiles. Adjacent to it, slightly raised 

up on the first floor, with huge windows and a gallery 

running round one side, are two conference rooms 

for twelve and 30 people, respectively. 

Even more dramatic, even more enticing, is the 

Marriott that BWM built on the Potsdamer Platz in 

Berlin (2018). Lit up in neon lights behind a thin 

curtain in the main conference hall are poetic words 

associated with meetings: connect, inspire, imagine, 

celebrate. In the pre-function and break-out rooms, 

4 contact

on the other hand, BWM created an Art Deco feel, 

with dark wood veneers, highly polished floors, 

plush velvet upholstery, golden-coloured furniture 

and geometric designs on the walls, reminiscent 

of the Chrysler Building, the Great Gatsby and 

the Roaring Twenties in New York. “It needs to be 

warm, plush and really cosy”, says Bernard. “Clients 

and conference attendees long for colour and textiles, 

for comfortable, laid-back, low seating – and for 

multifunctionality that works perfectly, but is hidden 

behind the appearance of a lovely, homely living 

room.” And unlike in 

earlier years, says the 

architect, the break-out 

and pre-function rooms 

are also becoming more 

and more important. 

“No, this isn’t wishful 

thinking or a construct 

of architectural 

theory – it’s the reality. 

I haven’t attended a 

single conference since 

COVID that left me 

cold in terms of the BWM Hotel Gilbert, Gallery 

space it took place in. 

Most of the events were held in pretty sensational 

locations, often with fantastic views of the city or the 

scenery. There’s tremendous competition now. In the 

age of Zoom and online conferences, only the best 

will survive.” This is confirmed by Susanne Baumann- 

Söllner, Vice-President for Congress Management at 

the Internationales Amtssitz- und Konferenzzentrum 

Vienna (IAKW – International HQ and Conference 

Centre) and also spokeswoman for the Board of 

the ACV Austria Center Vienna, by far the biggest 

conference centre in Austria. “Architecture – and 

the specific spatial and technical experience that it 

provides – is becoming more and more important, 

because the role of conferences is not just to share 

knowledge but also to enable people to network and 

enjoy sensory experiences that are outside their normal 

everyday working lives. In the wake of COVID 

and the unstoppable march of online communication, 

the value of meeting together in person has 

become even greater.” 

And for Christiane Unawatuna Hewage, Director 

of MICE at Verkehrsbüro Hospitality, the technical 

equipment and the rooms and online services that 

are available are 

all-important: “In 

the past, conference 

rooms in the hospitality 

sector were 

generally booked up a 

year in advance. Now, 

though, bookings 

can come rolling 

in just two or three 

months before the 

event. This means 

that the cancellation 

terms have changed, 

and of course hotels 

nowadays need to be able to react very spontaneously 

to last-minute alterations.” 

Will the event actually happen? Is it a purely analogue 

event or a hybrid one? How well-prepared are 

you to respond to any new government regulations, 

for example on hygiene, social distancing or providing 

refreshments? And what can you do if the 

conference is going to take place entirely online? At 

the Austria Trend Hotel Savoy near the Botanical 

Gardens and the Belvedere, during the pandemic in 

2020 they sacrificed one traditional suite and turned 

it into a streaming suite – with a sound-insulated 

© BWM Architekten Michael Königshofer 

It needs to be warm, 

plush and really cosy. 


Hospitality Concepts 

media room, a control room, two lecture rooms 

and even a dressing room for the speakers. Another 

important aspect is the question of environmental 

sustainability, which affects the conference sector as 

much as everyone else. “In my experience, many big 

companies will only organise their conferences and 

symposia in venues where they can say it is a certified 

Green Meeting”, says Michaela Reitterer, owner 

of the Hotel Stadthalle and, until the start of this 

year, long-term President of the Austrian Hoteliers 

Association (ÖHV). “I would 

advise all hotels and hoteliers 

to invest accordingly, if they 

want to remain successful 

in the market.” The German 

hotel expert Maria Pütz-Willems, 

publisher of the industry 

newsletter Hospitality Inside, 

makes this point even more 

strongly: “The semi-professional 

family hotel that just has 

one meeting room somewhere, 

equipped with whatever Marriott Hotel, Ballroom 

comes to hand, has had its 

day. Because big, listed companies that have made a 

commitment to their shareholders and stakeholders 

that they will meet certain environmental governance 

standards, and have to prove regularly that they 

are acting sustainably, simply can’t even approach a 

hotel anymore which doesn’t have green certification. 

The hotel industry would be well advised to adapt 

its conference facilities as quickly as it can.” The key 

aspects of green certification include being accessible 

on public transport, providing a suitable transport 

option for the final mile, reducing packaging on 

food, goodies and give-aways, using as little plastic 

as possible, running on green energy and generally 

being resource-efficient in energy consumption, sourcing 

food that is local and seasonal and if possible 

even has a social benefit, using eco-friendly cleaning 

materials and ensuring that the hotel’s overall CO 2 

footprint is low and transparent to all. “And what I’m 

seeing in the market,” says Pütz-Willems“, is that it’s not 

just the big players with 4- and 5-star hotels in the 

cities who have invested in this. Many medium-sized 

family-run companies have already done so as well, 

such as Lindner Hotels and even budget chains like 

Ruby Hotels. And classic holiday parks like Center 

Parcs and Club Med are also increasingly understanding 

the relevance of conferences and online working. 

It’s no wonder, because the WiFi on the back 

of an elephant somewhere in the jungle in Thailand 

is probably more stable than it is here in Germany.” 

Especially in the budget sector, 

more and more interesting 

hospitality products and business 

services keep popping up. 

For example, the budget chain 

Ruby Hotels has created a sister 

company, Rubyworks. This offers 

separate co-working spaces 

and conference facilities for 

hire that can be made available 

to both non-residents and hotel 

guests. Pütz-Willems: “The Rubyworks 

locations are usually 

only a few minutes’ walk from 

a Ruby Hotel. The service has gone down very well 

and I think it’s a smart and intelligent reaction to the 

trend over the last two years.” The market has become 

very difficult and during the lockdowns it seemed 

to be on its knees, but the conference business is not 

going to die out – all my interviewees agree on that. 

“There’s a strong analogue longing in us all”, says 

BWM architect Erich Bernard. “Alongside all the 

online formats and digital meetings, we still want 

to have post-its, flip-charts, graphic recording and 

physical closeness back again. Our task as architects 

in designing hotels and interiors is to make sure that 

these settings for synergy work well and, above all, 

give people pleasure, even more so than they did 

before.” 

Wojciech Czaja 

© BWM Architekten Wolfgang Zlodej 

To succeed in 

today’s event 

industry, you need 

to be inspired. 


Trend Watching 

Useful ideas 

for travellers. 

Skyroam Solis – 

pocket hotspot. 

The mobile hotspots in the Solis series give 

you access to the Internet virtually anywhere, 

anytime, with no need to worry 

about expensive phone contracts, 

getting the right SIM card or 

dealing with inconveniences 

such as possible incompatibility. 

Up to ten devices at a time 

can be online simultaneously 

using the WiFi provided by the 

hotspot, which currently works 

in over 130 countries. 

www.soliswifi.co 

© Solis 

© Solis 

AroundMe – points of interest 

nearby. 

Feeling hungry and in need of inspiration? Or want to 

meet friends in a nearby bar? With AroundMe, you can 

find the nearest restaurants, banks and filling stations, 

book a hotel or locate a cinema in your area. 

www.aroundmeapp.com 

© TravelPerk 

© AroundMe 

Business travel all packed 

up on a central platform. 

TravelPerk is the next-generation business travel 

platform. This all-in-one platform gives travellers 

the freedom they want, and companies the control 

that they need – from group bookings to invoicing 

and cost management. TravelPerk boasts the world’s 

biggest portfolio of travel resources, combined with 

high-performance management functions, roundthe-clock 

customer support, the latest technology 

and a user-friendly interface so that companies 

around the world can get the best out of their 

business travel. 

www.travelperk.com 


Interview 

AKoS Collaboration Center: 

more than just a 

business centre. 

AKoS (the Academy for Skills Development 

and Simulation) in Stuttgart has just opened 

a business centre that’s far from ordinary. 

At the AKoS Collaboration Center, they have 

created ultra-modern facilities for learning 

and working – with rooms for workshops, seminars, 

training courses and co-working. The 

Managing Director of AKoS, Horst Heinzmann, 

explains the concept behind it. 

AKoS recently opened its Collaboration Center in 

Stuttgart. What’s the idea behind it? 

Because of the pandemic, everyone is now familiar 

with working from home, online meetings and online 

seminars. But many companies are increasingly finding 

that their managers and employees are enjoying 

meeting up in person again, too. The Collaboration 

Center has facilities for workshops, seminars and 

training courses – and also for larger conferences for 

up to 100 people. Some of our customers book rooms 

just for one day, but more and more are meeting up 

with colleagues regularly once or twice a week. The 

rest of the time, they are mostly working at home 

or out on the road. The Centre offers all the infrastructure 

they need for their meetings – from coffee 

machines and drinks to media technology. Another 

feature of the Collaboration Center is its partnerships 

with interior designers and media equipment 

providers. We are supported not only by the furniture 

manufacturer Wiesner-Hager but also by Konferenzraum.tv 

for media technology and ISOLED® FIAI 

Handelsgesellschaft for lighting. For a training course 

to be successful, in addition to a qualified instructor, it 

also has to have comfortable and functional furniture, 

media technology that works and is easy to use, and 

suitable lighting. 

You and your company offer help with setting up 

online learning and teaching arrangements. What 

exactly does that service consist of ? 

An interactive display is now standard equipment 

for any room used for training courses. But thanks 

to our specially selected partners, we are also able to 

offer support with teaching methodology. So what’s 

important is that we don’t provide just the equipment 

but also instruction and training for the course leaders. 

And we don’t only want to offer this experience, and 


the opportunity for hands-on practice in using the 

media technology, to people taking part in courses or 

meetings. We’re opening up the chance to try out the 

equipment and the software to any company or educational 

institution that’s interested. What’s more, all our 

rooms are equipped with the latest video technology, so 

we offer the option of hybrid events. This event format 

is growing in importance and is being asked for more 

and more often. 

What were your main priorities in designing the 

different meeting, seminar and workshop rooms at the 

Collaboration Center? What did you focus on? 

The main focus was on flexibility. We wanted to create 

spaces that can be very quickly and easily adapted to 

meet our customers’ needs and preferences. A creative 

workshop, for example, requires different furnishings 

and media technology from a traditional classroom 

training course scenario. So we deliberately made 

our rooms very different from one another. With the 

standard arrangement, there is one traditional training 

room for up to 20 people, one conference room and 

one creative room, each for twelve people. The largest 

room can accommodate 50 people with parliamentstyle 

seating or up to 100 people with theatre-style 

seating. 

About Horst Heinzmann: The Akademie für Kompetenzentwicklung 

und Simulation GmbH – AKoS for short – is 

a spin-off company of the University of Stuttgart and has 

been in existence since 2010. It helps companies to develop 

and implement their online teaching and learning arrangements 

with the aim of futureproofing them and keeping 

their employees’ skills regularly updated. The Managing 

Partner is Horst Heinzmann, a qualified vocational 

training and technology instructor who has been working 

successfully on the digital transformation in (commercial) 

teaching and learning processes for many years. 

AKoS Collaboration Center 

Eichwiesenring 4F 

70567 Stuttgart 

www.collaboration-center.de 

The Collaboration Center also offers co-working 

spaces. How do you envisage your co-working concept? 

Co-working spaces were a thing even before the 

pandemic – at that time often due to a shortage 

of office space. Now they are used more to boost a 

company’s external image. We offer co-working spaces 

in combination with meeting rooms. Above all, our 

clients need stylish premises in which to meet their 

customers and business partners. Thanks to our interactive 

welcome display, both the people hiring the 

co-working space and their customers get a personal 

welcome. That makes them feel instantly at home in 

our facilities with all their modern equipment. It’s 

a concept that is particularly popular with start-up 

companies. 


Office Concepts 

Modern Work Tour. 

modern ways of 

working around the 

world 

34 countries – four continents – more than 130 companies: the two owners of the 

management consulting company MOWOMIND, Anna and Nils Schnell, spent two years 

travelling round the world researching new and innovative ways of working. In this interview, 

they share their findings and experiences. 

© Anna Schnell & Nils Schnell – MOWOMIND 


What did you look at on your Modern Work Tour? 

How did it go? 

We set off on our Modern Work Tour, a kind of 

modern journeyman’s travels, to study the question 

“What types of modern ways of working are there 

around the world?” Between 2018 and 2020, we 

travelled to 34 countries on four continents and 

visited companies in all kinds of sectors – from startups 

to big corporations. We focussed mainly on new 

ideas about leadership, modern working methods or 

companies that were organised in a new and different 

way, like the self-management proposed by Frederic 

Laloux, for example. But it was also important to us 

to find companies with which medium-sized businesses 

in German-speaking countries would be able to 

identify. After all, the example set by the Silicon Valley 

giants may be exciting, but it’s often very far from 

our experience here at home. That’s why we visited 

not only business hotspots like Singapore, Tel Aviv, 

Shenzhen and Lagos but also hidden gems like Kigali 

in Rwanda, Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and Sarajevo in 

Bosnia-Herzegovina. On our Modern Work Tour, we 

collaborated with over 130 companies, while continuing 

to look after our clients in Germany remotely, even 

before the pandemic. 

What does “new work” mean to you? 

We understand “new work” as being proactive in creating 

modern working environments and making work 

better for people in meaningful ways. So we were 

building on the idea put forward by the founder of 

the “new work” concept, Frithjof Bergmann, that the 

main question is to find what you “really, really want”, 

and are now adding the “really, really doing” part to 

our “reflect and act” approach. 

In which countries is “new work” being most promoted 

and becoming a reality? 

We found aspects of modern working in all the 34 

countries that we visited on our Modern Work Tour, 

albeit different versions of it. It was interesting 

that the concept of “new work” 

isn’t very well-known around the world, 

and people talk more about the “future 

of work”. As an example, it was exciting 

to see how in Rwanda the mechanism 

for setting up a new company has been 

so greatly simplified that you can do it in 

just a few days. Or how one woman in 

Mongolia was on a mission to help build 

a healthier society, and that motivated 

her to start up the country’s first natural 

skincare brand. 

What’s the picture like internationally – outside 

Europe? 

Lots of people are realising that the world of work is 

changing fast and they want to respond to that with 

different ways of working, so that they can be proactive 

in shaping the future. It’s interesting to see that we all 

have far more in common than there are differences 

between us. For example, the main motivators everywhere 

in the world are sustainability and diversity. All 

around the globe, those are the drivers for creating a 

new world of work. In our book, we introduce 9 principles 

of Modern Work that describe these common 

factors in greater detail. 

Is your world tour still continuing? 

Yes, our Modern Work Tour is still going on – starting 

on 6 October. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, 

we had to interrupt our modern journeyman’s travels 

in Africa, so now we’re on our way to South, Central 

and North America. That will complete our round 

tour of the world, and we’ll finish where we at first 

didn’t even want to go at all: in Silicon Valley. Maybe 

they’ll be inspired by our global insights? 

What can readers expect from your book about the 

Modern Work Tour? 

Our readers will find a book that’s an unusual mixture: 

it’s a business guide including 

practical examples and company 

portraits; it’s the personal travel 

journal of a couple of entrepreneurs 

from Hamburg; and it’s 

an inspiring photo book, because 

we have some great photos taken 

by drone to show our beautiful 

Earth from above. You can find 

the latest tour dates and some 

exciting videos to accompany the 

book on our website, 

www.mowomind.com. 

We hope you’ll have lots of fun 

reading the book and travelling 

with us in your imagination. 

© Anna Schnell & Nils Schnell – MOWOMIND 

Anna and Nils Schnell – MOWOMIND 


Reference Story 

Fitting out the hospitality sector 

Wiesner-Hager checks in 

with the NH Hotel Group. 

© NH Hotel Group 

NH Hotel Group (part of Minor), is a leading and consolidated 

international player that after the integration with Minor Hotels 

has a joint portfolio of 530 hotels in 56 countries. It offers a 

broad and diverse range of hotel propositions connected to the 

needs and desires of today‘s global travelers in the leisure as 

well as in the business and in the meeting and events segment. 

Now 21 hotels all over Europe have been fitted out with stylish 

conference furniture from Wiesner-Hager, including our bestsellers 

– the nooi stacking chair and the yuno stacking table, along 

with the skill conference table and pulse conference chairs. 

12 contact 

© NH Hotel Group

“Our philosophy is always to adopt a 

‘responsive way of working’, so our customers 

are at the heart of everything we do. 

We offer highly specialised conference 

and event solutions for event managers, in 

our hotels and resorts”, says Pablo Fernández 

Cachafeiro, Operations Director at the 

NH Hotel Group, as he explains the 

corporate ethos. Wiesner-Hager has been 

NH’s interior design partner for their 

events and conference facilities since 

2019: “The furniture is a key element in 

developing and delivering our performance promise. 

Our aim is for guests and participants to wish they 

could take the tables and chairs back to their office 

with them when they leave”, explains Cachafeiro. 

When choosing the perfect furniture, the NH Group 

had certain requirements that needed to be met: 

“The fixtures and fittings are adapted depending 

on the type of hotel and its geographical location. 

The flexibility, proactive responses and multifaceted 

product range that we found at Wiesner-Hager were 

what made us want to work with them. Now that 

we are part of Minor Hotels, we have broadened our 

portfolio and our target markets and need more than 

ever a partner who can offer global solutions”, insists 

the Operations Director. 


Digitalisation and constant changes 

in the conference world require 

businesses to be ever ready 

to adapt to the latest circumstances. 

“We work with lots of 

different customers who all have 

very different needs: internal 

meetings, team-building sessions, 

conferences, showrooms, product 

launches – each of them has their 

own expectations and priorities, 

whether that’s regarding comfort, 

flexibility or equipment. We have 

to adjust each set-up so that it 

meets all their requirements and 

delivers an unforgettable experience 

– that’s just in our DNA”, 

explains Cachafeiro. 


Project data: 

Hotels: 

280 all over Europe 

Hotels supplied by Wiesner-Hager: 21 

Furnishings: 

5800 nooi stacking chairs 

1440 yuno stacking tables 

Working with Wiesner-Hager since 2019 


Office Life 

Office culture reloaded: 

A new approach to 

old contentious 

issues. 

Hello again – that’s what many employees are saying, following their 

long period working from home, due mainly to the pandemic. No sooner 

had the sofa and the kitchen chair replaced their ergonomically 

designed office equivalents, no sooner had the routine set in and 

jogging bottoms become established as the new workwear, than it 

was time to return to the office – if only for a few days a week. So 

it’s no wonder that the cultural shift from a quiet little room at home 

to a large open-plan or shared office is rekindling some contentious 

areas of conflict. 


The points of friction are not exactly new. Colleague 

X still speaks on the phone at a volume that makes 

it sound like a rant, and colleague Y has apparently 

still not lost her penchant for eating garlic-flavoured 

lunches at her desk. Not to mention the classic issues 

like temperature, ventilation and tidiness. How did 

these things get sorted before the era of working 

from home? No-one can remember any more. But it’s 

leading to excessive stress and strain and making the 

return to the office more difficult. 

We even have to learn how to make small talk and 

polite conversation again. Whereas video conferences 

are usually over and done with quickly, in-person 

meetings still seem to go on for ever. During the lonely 

months spent working at home, many people seem 

to have developed an urge to 

talk which means they have to 

discuss everything in the most 

minute detail. At the opposite 

end of the spectrum are those 

who, after working for so long in 

isolation, now have to get used 

again to spontaneous meetings, 

loud voices and direct contact. 

Making the return to the 

office easier. 

Even if the conflicts from the 

past are all well-known, it’s still 

really important that the return 

to the office is carefully monitored. 

Open discussions, team 

meetings and talking about 

things are the best ways to start 

getting along together again, 

and it always helps to address 

any problematic areas openly. In addition, appropriate 

working patterns need to be established that match 

people’s actual attendance in the office. Guidelines 

for working together, in the form of an office policy, 

will support collaboration and avoid conflict areas by 

providing a written set of rules. Community Managers 

are the first port of call when it comes to observing 

the guidelines. They will take account of the different 

interest groups, coordinate communications and, last 

but not least, form a connecting link between everyone 

in the office. Creating a pleasant physical ambience 

and attractively designed separate zones in the office 

can help people literally 

to avoid potential conflicts 

and will encourage 

employees to return 

to the office. Having 

quiet areas such as 

silent rooms or libraries 

offers a balance to the 

open-plan or shared 

office and provides 

places where people can 

concentrate on their 

work or just escape for 

a while. Creative rooms 

and meeting zones, on 

the other hand, foster 

collaboration and help 

to rekindle team spirit. 

Outdoor areas and 

places for resting and 

chatting informally may 

also make the office a 

more attractive place. 

How the return to the 

office actually works 

out varies greatly from 

one person to another. 

While some people 

© shutterstock 

could hardly wait for the 

day when they would 

be reunited, others are still overwhelmed by the new 

situation. However, the fact is that social contact, even 

if it brings conflict with it, is essential for productive 

cooperation and for stimulating creativity and fresh 

ideas. 


Office Life 

Dress code for the o 

Swapping p 

They are among the most trusty companions 

when working from home, because they are 

comfy, no-fuss and timeless. We’re talking 

about traditional jogging bottoms. Karl 

Lagerfeld would presumably strongly 

disagree but, for sheer comfort, jogging 

bottoms were the must-have item of clothing 

during the pandemic. 

© AdobeStock 


ffice: 

umps for sneakers! 

And because, as we all know, humans are creatures of 

habit, they don’t like leaving their comfort zone. OK, 

perhaps jogging bottoms are an extreme example. 

Even though it goes without saying that Generation 

Z are keen on very casual clothing and may quite like 

the idea of jogging bottoms in the office, in practice 

this cult garment has not yet become firmly established 

there. But something that has changed since the 

return to the office is a certain new laxity in the dress 

code and a growing reluctance to force ourselves into 

uncomfortable clothing. 

So in many offices, the time has come to bid adieu to 

the suit and tie. After all, according to a survey by the 

management and technology consultant BearingPoint, 

only two per cent of the office employees questioned 

can still imagine sitting at their desk wearing a suit. 

The only exception would be for official meetings 

with their managers or with business partners. There 

are also financial reasons for the change. BearingPoint 

says that the average expenditure on business wear 

in 2019 was about 1,700 euros per year. During the 

pandemic, the figure was only about 480 euros on average. 

Especially where staff are in regular contact with 

customers, this is now giving rise to a dilemma: 

too strict a dress code scares employees off, 

while outfits that are too casual could 

look unprofessional. 

Smart casual is the new chic. 

One thing’s for sure: we’ll never go back to 

pre-pandemic standards. Yet it would be hard 

to define a generally applicable dress code, and it 

would vary greatly between different jobs. Nevertheless, 

the so-called smart casual look offers a possible 

way to combine comfort and elegance. The defining 

characteristic of this style is a combination of informal 

garments with more formal ones, for example dark 

jeans with a blazer. Fashion experts say that the most 

important thing is to make sure that the materials 

look high-quality. Open-toed shoes, prints and gaudy 

colour combos are taboo, even for the smart casual 

look. One absolute must-have is the white T-shirt, 

which goes with anything and instantly makes any 

style look cool. 

Sneakers instead of high heels. 

High heels and narrow, formal lace-ups are the absolute 

epitome of discomfort. That’s why, as of now, 

comfort’s the thing when it comes to shoes, too. 

Comfortable sneakers have long since made their way 

into the office and are often even teamed with a suit. 

But be careful, here again the experts warn that shoes 

should be in plain colours like black or white and not 

decorated with jazzy patterns or colourful designs. 

Come as you are. 

As we’ve already suggested, the younger generation 

in particular is increasingly displaying a more relaxed 

attitude when it comes to clothing. So in some startups 

– not many, but some – the guideline is: “Come as 

you are.” From shirts to flip-flops, anything goes here. 

The idea is to dress to suit your own personality, not 

just to follow every fashion trend. So in conclusion? 

Let’s see what the experts recommend: depending on 

the corporate culture and the industry, the dress code 

should be openly renegotiated with the employees. 

Ideally, such a dialogue will lead to mutual understanding 

and a compromise solution. So it sounds 

like smart casual… Or is the tie about to celebrate a 

revival? 

In many offices the time has 

come to bid adieu to the suit 

and tie. 


Trend Watching 

IT solutions 

for shared desks. 

People can’t have everything – both be able to work from home and also have their personal workspace 

in the office: more and more companies are coming to this conclusion. On the days when the 

employee is working from home, their abandoned desk is a waste of space. Desk sharing is increasingly 

the order of the day, and in many offices having your own desk is a thing of the past. What 

sounds simple at first requires some organisational effort in practice to make sure that work processes 

all run smoothly. Luckily, there are software solutions specifically designed for shared workspaces. 

© evoko 

Desk booking. 

Where can each employee temporarily set up camp 

on their days in the office? This is where desk 

booking systems come into their own. Electronic 

devices like the Kleeo Desk Manager 

are easy to install on the desk and then the 

software in the background shows, there and 

then, when and whether the seat is occupied 

and who has booked it. There are already 

app solutions, too: deskbird, for example, 

offers a straightforward platform for booking 

desks quickly. All the available desks are 

shown in real time and can be booked with 

just a couple of clicks. Employees can also find 

out when certain colleagues are going to be 

in the office, making it easier to plan in-person 


meetings. With the desk-sharing app FlexWhere, 

you can do more than just book a workstation: the 

app helps you to filter the available desks based on 

various criteria such as their technical equipment. 

For office and building managers, FlexWhere also 

offers a statistics function, so that they can optimise 

the usage of each meeting room. 

Smart integration. 

It is particularly useful to incorporate desk-sharing 

software into programs that are already used such as 

Microsoft Teams or Outlook. Many providers, anny 

for example, have already introduced this system, 

making it easier to train people to use the program 

because it uses familiar tools. In many cases, 

personal diary planning and bookings for meeting 

rooms are also incorporated in these software 

solutions, and they can be synchronised with 

existing calendars. 

It’s important to have some organisational 

guidelines in place: only if the software is 

used all the time, and properly, can it be guaranteed 

that desk sharing will run smoothly. 

Hardware for shared desks. 

In addition to dedicated software, there are also various 

different hardware solutions to make working at 

shared desks easy. One option is plug and play: users 

bring their own personal Notebooks with them 

and connect them by USB-C cable to the docking 

station, which ideally is integrated in an external 

monitor. 

Another option is to have fixed desktop PCs with 

shared access. In specific terms, this means that 

the user signs on with their personal login details 

and has direct access to all the data on their own 

virtual desktop. This method can also be useful 

in meeting rooms. Materials such as presentations 

or documents are made available over 

the cloud, without people needing to connect 

up their own PC. Along with all the technical 

details, at the end of the day, it’s also important 

with desk sharing to have some basic rules in 

place, such as a clean desk policy. After 

all, you’re no longer solely responsible 

for the work space – so leave it 

clear for the next desk sharer! 


Hotels from around the world 

A night 

with Oscar 

Wilde. 

The NoMad in London, once a prison but 

now European Hotel of the Year 2021, 

plays on its mixed history and proves the 

power and creative potential that lurk in 

even the darkest places. Let’s take a walk 

through a far from everyday hospitality 

venue. 

© SimonUpton 


Oscar Wilde, women’s rights campaigner 

Emmeline Pankhurst and the 

criminal Kray Twins, who made a not 

exactly glorious career in the Fifties 

and Sixties in London’s East End out 

of murder, theft, racketeering, arson 

and illegal gambling – they were all 

former residents here. Although resident 

perhaps isn’t quite the right word. 

Rather, they spent months or even 

years behind bars here – some of them 

for good legitimate reason, others 

not. On 20 April 1895, the following 

unhappy headline was emblazoned 

on the title page of the Police News: 

“Oscar Wilde at Bow Street”. 

However, two years ago, the former 

Bow Street Magistrates Court and 

Police Station in the heart of Covent 

Garden hit the headlines again. This 

time not on account of its reluctant 

guests but rather because of those 

who came of their own free will 

to spend a few nights indulging 

in an intoxicating combination of 

light and shade, history and quirky 

innuendo, luxury for the body and 

adventuring for the mind. With 

this site at 28 Bow Street – halfway 

between the Thames and the British 

Museum, directly opposite the Royal 

Opera House – the American 

luxury hotel chain NoMad has now 

opened its first hotel on European 

soil. And what a hotel! 

In our projects, 

we want people 

to experience 

luxury living, 

but also to 

discover pure 

romanticism 

and Bohemian 

joie de vivre. 

“The building was built in the 18th 

century and was used as a police 

station and prison for over 250 

years”, says Stephen Alesch, who, 

with his partner Robin Standefer, 

runs the New York design bureau 

Roman and Williams. “The 

building has an austere, thoroughly 

masculine feel. We wanted to 

add a softer and more glamorous 

counterbalance to this strictly 

manly ambience and somehow give 

the hotel a feminine touch. This 

hotel is full of dichotomies, full of 

contrasts which for us embody an intervention that 

is dedicated to enjoyment and hedonism.” Certainly 

in the evening, when the tables in the spacious 

dining room are sumptuously and ornately laid with 

traditional cutlery and crockery, and candles glow 

between miniature olive trees, you can see what is 

meant by the dichotomy of gender crossover. In the 

middle of the room stands what the New York design 

bureau describes as “untamed wildlife”, while in the 

background, the wooden wall and ceiling panelling 

© SimonUpton 

© SimonUpton 


Hotels from around the world 

is covered with a more than magical, almost ghostly, 

mural by the French artist Claire Basler. 

Elsewhere, velvet, wall coverings, marble, crystal, 

Murano glass, fringes and tassels and design classics 

stand alongside stylish, glossily lacquered furniture. 

“No, we don’t have a particular style or characteristic 

signature”, say Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer, 

he a passionate self-taught painter and artist, she a 

qualified stage and film director who worked for 15 

years as a visual consultant for Martin Scorsese. “We 

work with what we find, and in this case that is a very 

expressive building that has lived through a lot and 

exudes an incredible, unmistakable energy. There are 

many forces at play in this building.” 

Following its conversion by EPR Architects led by 

Mark Bruce, and the interior design by Roman and 

Williams, the NoMad Hotel, a listed building that 

is now owned by the Sydell Group, offers 91 luxury 

rooms. It also boasts a number of other exciting 

spaces including the lobby, atrium, library, Elephant 

Bar, seminar rooms and theatrically decorated 

lounges for weddings, banquets and private dining. 

Room prices are regularly between 400 and 600 

pounds, so well beyond the pain threshold for many, 

but for that price you can sleep in the European Hotel 

of the Year 2021 in all its glory. “In our projects, 

we want people to experience luxury living, but also 

to discover pure romanticism and Bohemian joie de 

vivre”, says Alesch, who with his team has already 

given numerous hotels and prize-winning temples 

of gastronomy a new look and, according to the Architectural 

Digest, is one of the top 100 designers in 

the world. “We want people to be curious and eager 

to let their thoughts fly away, far, far away.” And 

who knows, maybe they will encounter the picture 

of Dorian Gray or the feminist spirit of suffragette 

Emmeline Pankhurst in one of the rooms. I can resist 

everything except temptation – Oscar Wilde. 


© SimonUpton 


What’s on your desk? 

03 

04 

10 

05 

09 

02 

08 

06 

07 

01 

© Gustav Willeit 

© Archiv Bergmeisterwolf 

What’s on your desk, 

Michaela Wolf? 

The buildings designed by Bergmeisterwolf are a radical addition to the 

landscape, and enter into sometimes poetic, sometimes jarring dialogue 

with their surroundings; they irritate people, rub them up the wrong way, 

provoke arguments, but in the end are so harmonious within themselves 

that you don’t want to change any aspect of them. And the studio where 

the ideas are born and take shape is not dissimilar from the final buildings. 

Michaela Wolf and her partner Gerd Bergmeister are based in a 

listed building from the 14th century, in the middle of the Italian town of 

Brixen, with the Eisack, the second-longest river in South Tirol, rushing 

past the window. 

“We moved in five years ago and had to really set about it, which was quite 

a challenge in the light of the strict regulations of the Office for Historical 

Monuments”, says Wolf, and yes, she likes a challenge. “We hardly touched 

the old part, but enhanced it with new elements of discontinuity. It’s 

all about introducing rupture, thinking outside the box and constantly 

broadening horizons.” This defiance of expectations also applies to the 

way they work, because you will look in vain for a permanent desk in their 

office. “People in office design talk about desk sharing and activity-based 

working. We’ve been doing that for years, because I can’t bear to spend 

the whole day sitting in one place. I have to walk about, which is probably 

a reflection of my restless nature, and constantly find a new perspective. 

I work on site, or in the passenger seat of the car, or when I’m walking in 

the woods.” 

01 

02 

03 

04 

05 

06 

07 

08 

09 

10 

You enter the office through the model-making workshop. That 

is literally the foundation of our architectural design. We can’t 

imagine a drafting process that didn’t involve making a model 

and working physically with our own hands. 

The staircase is made of standard concrete formwork panels. 

We don’t like things to be too slick and perfect. We want the 

planning and construction process to be visible. Sometimes I even 

use the staircase to sit on and work on my laptop. 

On the first floor we have traditional office workstations and – 

really important – a little bar so that we can drink an espresso 

together. 

The wooden beams in the ceiling date from the 14th century. We 

have retained all the traces of paint, and have just supported the 

ceiling with a simple waxed and buffed steel construction. 

The materials are very basic: concrete floors, wall heating, and 

lime plaster on the walls. The walls are up to a meter thick and 

the windows are positioned so that you can’t see them from 

outside. 

The table is custom-made. I need big, empty surfaces to be able 

to work. Tidiness is important to me because only if my workplace 

and head are clear is there space for new ideas. 

What we like best is to combine new items with a few old things, 

in this case old Eames chairs or Tolix chairs that we found at the 

Lichterloh antique shop in Vienna. 

We also use new wooden chairs, but they have to be really good 

quality. Like the Czech chair by Viennese designer Hermann 

Czech. 

Our studio is full of working models. All made out of corrugated 

cardboard, which is easy to cut and mark out. We like our models. 

We spend a lot of time in the office, and we love this place. But 

sometimes you need a change. Then I take my laptop and go 

outside. 



Office Life 

All change in the world of work: 

Gen Z is coming! 

It must be flexible, but also meaningful, and well paid, with a flat 

hierarchy and a varied range of responsibilities – that’s how the new 

arrivals in the world of work from Generation Z sum up their job 

requirements. What makes Gen Z tick and how do employers need 

to adapt to them? 


X – Y – Z … who is who? 

All kinds of letters and terms are used to describe 

different generations, but who belongs where? Generation 

Z (Gen Z for short) normally covers anyone 

born between 1996 and 2010. The predecessors of Z 

were, obviously, Generation Y, born between 1981 

and 1995. People born between 1965 and 1980 are 

usually referred to as Generation X. Before that, 

there were the baby boomers, from 1946. So far, so 

good. You can see from these categories that Gen Z 

are just at the starting blocks, about to enter professional 

life. 

The status quo. 

Unlike many earlier generations, Gen Z grew up in 

affluence and with countless opportunities open to 

them. They have used mobile phones, computers, 

and the Internet since they first started school. 

Prosperity enabled their parents 

to give them all kinds of support 

and encouragement. Consequently, 

finding the right kind 

of job training is very important 

to them. They are also more 

willing to break off their studies 

or apprenticeships and start 

something new. So Gen Z has 

different expectations of their 

lives and jobs – spoiler alert: 

work is no longer the highest priority. 

According to the business magazine “brand eins”, 

fewer than 9 million people were born in Germany 

around the turn of the millennium. This makes them 

a very small group – and that in turn leads to a shortage 

of future workers. That’s why it’s now companies 

which are advertising for potential employees, and 

not the other way around. And that makes it easier 

for Gen Z to assert their demands. 

What are their expectations? 

So what is important to Generation Z in their 

working life? Top of the list, according to a survey 

by the Statista research department, is a good work/ 

life balance. 84 % of the 18 to 23-year-olds who were 

questioned, all over the world, said that it was important 

or very important to them to have a healthy 

Work as an end in itself, to 

earn money, is no longer the 

highest priority. 

balance between their work and their free time. 

Work as an end in itself, to earn money, is no longer 

the highest priority. Leisure, family and self-fulfilment 

are the key factors for the young generation. 

Nevertheless, the financial aspect does still play a key 

role. After all, 87 % of those questioned said that they 

regarded good pay and other benefits as essential. 

76 % also want flexible working hours and the option 

of working away from a traditional desk. For Gen Z, 

working from home, remote working and a creative 

working environment are not additional benefits but 

a matter of course. Furthermore, over 80 % said that 

variety in their work, and the opportunity for what 

they did to make a significant difference, were crucial 

when choosing a job and employer. 

So what can be done? 

Offering a basket of fruit, the chance to work from 

home and a cafeteria are no 

longer enough to attract 

the future generation of 

workers. HR managers must 

come up with new ideas to 

appeal to Generation Z. 

Business trips, part-time 

working, annual leave entitlement 

upgrades and regular 

employee events score 

highly – especially when 

combined with more free time, more purpose and 

more team spirit. Gen Z also values flat hierarchies, a 

direct approach, coaching and further training. 

Then, once a Gen Z employee arrives in your company, 

it’s a question of keeping them. How do you 

do that? HR experts recommend, above all, open 

communication and regular feedback – both praise 

and suggestions for improvement. Generation Z also 

loves a challenge and taking responsibility for their 

own areas of a project. And, as we’ve already said, 

what’s really important is to accept their need for a 

good work/life balance. Members of Gen Z want to 

be able to draw a sharp dividing line between their 

job and their private life, with a clear conscience. 


Showroom 

Combining comfort 

and functionality. 

Discover two new products from Wiesner-Hager – the batch skid-base chair, 

now optionally with a homely and comfortable padded seat, and the p.f.s. folding 

table, impressive for its efficient folding mechanism and excellent stability. 

batch comfort 

Formal minimalism meets 

maximum comfort. 

batch comfort is a new version of our successful skidbase 

chair with comfortable padding. The minimalism 

of the thin, geometric tubular frame contrasts with 

the particularly plush upholstery that gives the chair a 

homely, comfortable charm. 

The thick padding looks and feels luxurious and creates 

an interesting counterpoint to the graceful frame 

of the chair made of 12 mm tubular steel, which is the 

epitome of minimalism and reminiscent of a simple 

line drawing, reduced to essentials. The numerous 

fabrics in the extensive Wiesner-Hager collection offer 

plenty of scope for creativity in interior design. batch 

comfort can be used in many areas of office design, as 

well as in hotels and conference halls – and especially 

in co-working cafés, conference lobbies, entrance halls, 

waiting rooms and libraries. In short: you’ll find batch 

comfort anywhere where people want to spend time in 

comfort or have a relaxed conversation. 

Design: Andreas Krob 


p.f.s. folding tables 

Making rearranging the furniture child’s play. 

The name of the folding table, p.f.s., says it all: the “progressive folding 

system” has no additional strut, leaving more legroom while remaining 

very stable. The fold-down function is extremely simple, intuitive and 

safe. Built-in stacking protection ensures that the surface of the table is 

not damaged during stacking. 

The strengths of the p.f.s. folding table come to the fore in (large) multipurpose 

rooms where the layout is changed frequently. So it’s ideal for 

use in conference, seminar or event venues. The table system also offers 

an amazing variety of different formats, designs and optional extras. For 

even greater design freedom, there is a choice of three different frames: 

an elegant, sloping, rectangular steel frame, a minimalist, curved, tubular 

steel frame or a stylish, slimline T-shaped leg. 

Design: Andreas Krob 


Configure furniture sets online – 

apply planning data directly. 

We have now added planning scenarios to our CAD product catalogue. This means that 

complete modules or sets (e.g. a conference table + matching conference chairs) can be 

configured online and applied directly to your planning. This tool makes preparing plans and 

quotations much quicker. 

Click here for the 

configurator

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