08.10.2009 - Reader’s Digest

New Reader’s Digest offices in Stuttgart combine striking architecture with optimised acoustics

Anyone approaching Stuttgart from the north, via the Heilbronner Strasse, will pass along a stretch of road lined with buildings designed by well-known architects, such as Günther Behnisch, or, down by the main station, the famous “Geno” building, designed in the 1970s by Kammerer and Belz. In its immediate vicinity, opposite the angular new LBBW tower and the vast area reserved for Stuttgart 21, the “Z-UP” office building has recently been completed and its new users have moved in. The building complex, designed by Professor Kergaßner, includes a residential building, currently still under construction, and was conceived as a new landmark building for Stuttgart, an objective it meets well, with its unusual shape and eye-catching façade design. Main tenant is the media and marketing company Reader’s Digest Germany, whose offices have been equipped with the UNO.S screen system and other office furniture elements from König + Neurath.

The name Z-UP refers to the building’s footprint, which is in the shape of a curved ‘z’. The ‘downstroke’ accommodates the central building services and two access cores. The office building has eight floors, offering just under 9,000 square metres of office space and 163 underground car parking spaces. It is complemented by a new residential block, also with a total of eight floors, which is still under construction. The distinctive shape of the building footprint is also reflected in its façade. The white window frames stand out like bold symbols on the dark background. All horizontal lines are met by a slanted vertical, reiterating the ‘z’ theme, and this, combined with the varying length of the horizontal frames, gives the façade a dynamic rhythm. The building’s double-skin façade has been constructed as a corridor and box-window façade, enabling it to meet the high specifications for sound and heat insulation as well as solar radiation control. The striking light-dark contrast of the façade, in combination with the unusual shape of the building, has quickly made the Z-UP one of the most-photographed buildings in Stuttgart and its surrounding region. The office areas have been designed so that individual offices can be partitioned off flexibly in any size or shape required, allowing for up to four separate office units per floor. Due to the poor air quality in this part of the city the building relies solely on mechanical ventilation. Depending on the outdoor temperature, the air intake can be either heated or cooled. The offices are used primarily by the media and marketing company Reader’s Digest – around 200 staff from different departments work across five floors. Their old building in Stuttgart’s town centre had a traditional layout with individual offices for each member of staff. The new offices consist of a mix of open plan areas of different sizes, individual offices, team spaces and “get-together” zones. At the centre of each floor are kitchens as well as printer and copier areas and meeting points, where high tables provide an informal meeting space for short, focused meetings. König + Neurath’s innovative QUICK standing support is ergonomic and practical for this, as it takes the pressure of the spine when standing for longer periods while at the same time being light-weight and easy to carry.

When staff who are used to individual offices move into open plan or team office spaces, the issue of acoustics is of course an important consideration. “We therefore asked König + Neurath to calculate the acoustic performance of our new office in detail, taking into account office design and furnishings,” explains Peter Braun, Director of Human Resources & Communications at Reader’s Digest in Stuttgart, “the result is very convincing”. Peter H. Feldmann, Project Manager for Ergonomics at the furniture manufacturer König + Neurath, came up with a comprehensive office concept, designed to minimise the background noise generated in an open plan office with a large number of staff. It utilises sideboards and cupboards, up to the height of six lever arch files, which are fitted at the front with acoustic panels. It also includes partition walls from the UNO.S range, designed to absorb noise via micro-perforated elements behind a blue fabric screen. In addition, noise-absorbing panels have been attached to the office walls in some areas and special sound-insulating carpets further improve office acoustics overall. “Naturally, some members of staff were concerned initially, about the new office set-up”, says Reader’s Digest’s Peter Braun. “If you have colleagues who are used to individual offices suddenly all working together in the same room with other colleagues, the overall noise level will rise and there will also be noise peaks, especially when people are talking on the phone, but also from other sources. Obviously, people will have to adapt and some may need to change their behaviour slightly – for example, colleagues who like to raise their voice when talking on the phone. However, it has already become clear, after a short acclimatisation period, that our staff enjoy the new offices. And, most of all, we have achieved our objective of improving communication between members of staff. This is seen as a positive outcome by the majority.” Walking around the different Reader’s Digest office areas one gets a sense of quiet activity – and this is not necessarily an oxymoron. Acoustically, the rooms seem quiet, despite being full of people working, and without being completely devoid of sound. There is noise, but it is not disruptive, thereby achieving another key objective, namely to minimise noise levels that would adversely affect concentration. At the same time, these offices are full of life, especially in the editorial departments, whose core business, after all, is communication... Author: W.O. Geberzahn