Cantine in the Zentralverband des deutschen Handwerks, Berlin

Brief

A quick coffee or a lunch with colleagues - the canteen is "the place to be" in every company, and also the place to recharge your batteries, to gather strength and the meeting place for all employees where news is exchanged, projects are discussed or work is stopped and paused. The basis of the team.

However, if the furnishings are getting on in years and do not invite you to actively relax, and a pandemic is doing the rest, the room will, accordingly, be deserted. Thus the aim was to bring the unattractive break room and the adjoining hall back to life and to make the canteen usable as a meeting point for lunch and small meetings. Soft drinks as well as a small range of meals should be possible in the future.

Following the successfully completed conversion and redesign of the open-plan office of the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH), the framework had been created to develop a modern, structured room setting for large-scale cooperation: now a similarly pro-active break area was needed for employees.

The greatest challenge in the implementation of "life-giving measures" to the tired space was to find a good symbiosis between contemporaneousness and tradition in the listed building.

Realisation

The focus of the realization was the symbiosis between modernity and tradition in the listed building. The Central Association of German Crafts decided to live up to its name and incorporate individually design for benches and tables, which underline the epoch of the house in Mohrenstrasse without imitating it. Standing tables, cupboards and shelves were also designed and manufactured by hand.

The counter, which was completely redesigned including the tiles and technology, is both an eye-catcher and a communication element. The catering needs also required a rethinking of the storage space, so special solutions tailored to the room were implemented.

In addition to those components that draw attention to the division and furnishing of the room, the lighting and electrical planning has also undergone a complete update and the acoustics have been redesigned. A pleasant spatial sound was also required that allowed disturbing noises to recede into the background: for this reason, the walls were covered with wooden panels, the design of which was adapted to the general look and feel of the room and the open-plan office. The other materials used, the products and colours were also designed and selected in close coordination with existing and epochal elements.