SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIVE OFFICE ENVIRONMENT

The COVID-19 crisis has once again shown that social and societal developments not only have a significant impact on our daily lives but also on the way we do our work. Attracting and, especially, retaining talent is now more important and challenging than ever. It’s also essential to understand that employees place great value on their connection with their employer. They want to be part of a team and take pride in working for an attractive and successful company.

Blurring the Line Between Work and Personal Life
The trend is that the boundary between work and personal life is increasingly blurring. With the internet, email, and social media, the world is at our feet. We can work anytime and anywhere, receiving information and news 24/7. Effectively channeling and interpreting this information is crucial, especially for organizations. How do we protect our company, know-how, and employees? And how do we distinguish ourselves from the rest?

Freedom, Autonomy, Creativity
For Pension Fund PGB, this distinctiveness is reflected, among other things, in a modernized, fresh, and multifunctional office. M+R interior architecture was brought on board for the design. The revamped building offers freedom and autonomy, as well as ample space for creative opportunities. Through the generic layout, shaped in co-creation sessions in close collaboration with PGB employees, a flexible work environment has been created that seamlessly adopts changes and innovations.

Variety of Workspaces
The office provides a wide range of spaces. Think quiet rooms, team spaces, phone booths, informal meeting areas, and brainstorming rooms. Meetings can be held traditionally seated, standing, onsite, or online. Employees at PGB can alternate between sitting and standing at their workstations. Collaboration with the users has resulted in a building where they can work together comfortably and efficiently. The variety of workspaces ensures there is always a place suited to the tasks at hand. We are confident that once the coronavirus is under control, PGB employees will gladly return to the new office.

Expressing Core Values
Each floor is designed using one of the colors from the PGB style guide. The walls of the elevator lobbies are decorated with photographic wallpaper that depicts PGB’s core values: involvement, authenticity, clarity, and collaboration. The ground floor of the new office is fully dedicated to meeting, relaxing, brainstorming, knowledge sharing, consulting, presenting, and conferencing. To enhance work enjoyment, the space is open, light, and filled with plenty of greenery.

Hospitality & Meeting
The left wing is dedicated to reception and hospitality. There is a dining/work café that leads to the outdoor terrace on the building’s south side. The terrace floats above the embankment and is accessible via the existing emergency exit. The right wing is designed as a meeting area, with various meeting, brainstorming, presentation, and collaboration spaces. In the center of this wing is a spot for informal discussions, landing, and flexible work. The various modern meeting facilities, both physical and digital, are also used by affiliated business associations, companies, and PGB relations.

Open Stairs
The major architectural change was the addition of new open staircases in both atria, designed by M+R. These connect the ground floor and the three upper floors through the open central area. On each floor, there is a terrace with informal seating areas, landing spots, and a pantry. These terraces naturally separate the open "public" spaces from the work areas.

Reuse and Modernization
It was a great honor to create an efficient, sustainable, and timeless interior for Pension Fund PGB in the office building from 1986, all while staying well within budget. We reused as much existing material as possible, such as carpets, wooden floorboards, cable trays, parts of the internal walls, induction units, and toilets. The building was modernized with new insulating facade panels, the conversion of existing lighting to LED technology, and the connection to district heating. The building now holds an A+ energy label. The outdoor area was redesigned with the reuse of existing paving and preservation of the trees. Electric charging points were added, along with sustainable outdoor lighting for safety and PGB signage for orientation.