[ORGATEC 2012] ORGATEC Office & Architecture Night in Cologne
3:04 pm am July 20, 2012
Anyone visiting ORGATEC on 26th October 2012 should not miss one of the supporting programme’s highlights: INSIGHT COLOGNE – the ORGATEC Office & Architecture Night, which will be held for the second time. After the fair closes for the day, ORGATEC visitors and the general public will be able to explore around 15 offices in Cologne between 6 p.m. and midnight. In line with the slogan “Find out today how we’ll be working tomorrow”, guided tours and viewings will provide participants with insights into a variety of office and workplace concepts that would normally be inaccessible to the public. During their tour of the extraordinary offices, participants of INSIGHT COLOGNE will get an impression of the diversity of today’s (office) work environments. A shuttle bus will carry the participants to the various locations, where visitors will be able to view the interiors of exciting architectural highlights such as the Gerling Quartier, the Kranhaus 1 in the Rheinauhafen district, the new IT Campus Süd, the Cologne Oval Offices, the Dominium and the site of the former Vulkan plant in Ehrenfeld.
The individual stops or companies will reflect the various office planning possibilities, which have been grouped into the following categories: “New Office Concepts and Trends in Architecture”, “Top-quality Revitalizations of Buildings” and “Sustainably Developed Offices and Office Facilities”. This year, visitors will be able to take part in guided group tours of selected facilities for the first time. As was the case in 2010, visitors can also take part in numerous tours on their own and put together their own itinerary.
Today’s work environment is increasingly dynamic and international, featuring rapid technological developments and changing communication structures. The “New Office Concepts and Trends in Architecture” category will therefore particularly focus on up-to-date workplace concepts that take these changes into account. An example of this will be the M. DuMont Schauberg publishing company’s press building, which strives to promote communication and create transparency. Known as the Neven DuMont Building, this glass-and-concrete structure harmoniously blends functionality with aesthetics and environmental compatibility while at the same time expressing the company’s identity.
That pioneering office concepts can also be created within existing buildings is demonstrated, for example, by the Detecon management consulting firm. The company cleverly rearranged the rooms in a 1970s office building to create state-of-the-art interior space concepts. As a result, the firm’s new headquarters enables 600 employees to work in a mobile, flexible and networked manner in line with the requirements of tomorrow’s working world. Another example of “Top-quality Revitalizations of Buildings” can be viewed in Cologne’s Mülheim district, where INSIGHT COLOGNE will allow visitors to experience a cutting-edge work culture in a structure boasting old industrial architecture. Here, the springer f3 company transformed an old locksmith’s shop into its dream work environment, consisting of open creative areas, a living room for inspired thinking, “floating” offices for concept work and consulting, an integrated photography studio, and the company’s actual centrepiece – the kitchen.
An example from the category “Sutainably Developed Offices and Office Facilities” is provided by the new German directorate of the SCOR reinsurance company. The new centre completed in January 2012 is the first building in Cologne to comply with the European standard for sustainable building and offers state-of-the-art workstations for 250 employees. The Gerling Quartier, meanwhile, can be assigned to all of the three different categories. FRANKONIA Eurobau and Immofinanz Group are transforming the former corporate office of Gerling Versicherung into a new, high-quality urban quarter with a mixture of residential and work areas. The buildings form a protected historic monument, in which FRANKONIA is installing ultramodern office rooms, which also boast impressive environmental performance.
The ORGATEC office and architecture night impressively shows that no two offices are exactly the same. Tailored office concepts are needed to meet the needs of different rooms, companies, and employees. At ORGATEC, the leading international trade fair for offices and facilities, around 600 international exhibitors will be coming to Cologne from 23rd to 27th October 2012 to present their trends and solutions for today’s work environments – displaying everything from furnishings, lighting systems and flooring all the way to acoustic systems and media technology. On Friday evening, INSIGHT COLOGNE will extend ORGATEC into the world of practical work.
