Client: Diakonie Himmelsthür e. V.
Planning: es innenarchitektur
Realisation: smow Hanover
Year: 2025
Areas furnished: Meeting rooms, Cafeteria, Lounge
The construction of the new Diakonie Himmelsthür administration building fulfilled the desire to bring together several previously scattered company locations in one place. After almost 50 years at the Sorsum site in Hildesheim, a modern new office building covering around 2,500 square meters spread over two floors was constructed, focusing on openness, interaction, and sustainability.
The aim was to create classic double offices organized by department, which continue to offer employees their own clearly defined workspaces, while at the same time promoting an open atmosphere that encourages exchange and collaboration. The mission statement “Living together, creating transparency, building bridges” formed the conceptual basis for the spatial design.
Based on this, interior designer Esther Sauskojus from Hanover developed an overall interior design concept, which was implemented by smow Hanover with high-quality furniture. The result is a contemporary, flexible working environment for around 120 employees that meets both today's requirements and long-term use.
The aim was to create a working environment that not only meets functional requirements, but also fosters identity, promotes collaboration and actively involves employees in shaping their surroundings. At the same time, the new company headquarters had to be sustainable, durable and flexible in order to meet future requirements, while harmoniously integrating the corporate identity of Diakonie Himmelsthür into the overall concept.
A particular challenge was the intensive involvement of employees in order to carefully transition their familiar working methods into a future-oriented, more open structure. Sustainability and durability were the focus here: the furniture is timeless and designed for long-term use. Further requirements arose from a barrier-free design, flexible use for different forms of work and efficient use of space. The generous storage areas were to be deliberately reduced in order to create space for more flexible working structures and the requirements of advancing digitalisation.
Working closely together, Esther Sauskojus' interior design firm, es innenarchitektur, smow Hanover under the direction of Lisa Schüßler and the managers at Diakonie Himmelsthür developed an interior concept that combines functionality, aesthetics and a clear attitude. smow Hanover accompanied the project from the selection of furniture to on-time delivery and assembly.
The work areas were furnished with high-quality, durable furniture that meets ergonomic requirements and is also visually appealing.
Meeting areas on each floor serve as deliberately designed communication hubs. The classic cell structure was broken up in favour of greater transparency and the removal of visual barriers through large-scale glazing and individually designed with foils featuring company-related graphics.
Carefully selected accent colours on each floor structure the building and facilitate orientation. The colour scheme of Diakonie Himmelsthür is harmoniously reflected in upholstery, surfaces, photo wallpaper and other furnishing details, strengthening the corporate identity of the building in an elegant and unifying way.
For the umbrella brand of "Naturally Pam" and "Protein Projekt" an identity-creating, feel-good atmosphere was developed, with topics such as sustainability, a healthy lifestyle and modern technology at its heart.
The demands placed on contemporary work environments have changed fundamentally in recent years. Flexible spatial concepts, open communication area and versatile retreats are now central components of contemporary office design. Based on these principles, a 1,000 m² office space in Hanover was completely restructured.
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