We had the opportunity to visit Steelcase’s Learning and Innovation Center in Munich today, where we were welcomed warmly. The Learning and Innovation Center is a three building campus that was fully opened in 2017. For a year, only part of the campus was finished, and Steelcase decided to move all of their future Munich employees into the finished area, despite the inconvenience of the cramped space, because they wanted the employees to stay close and connected rather than grow apart for a year. Once the campus was fully finished, the employees spread out and the facilities were no longer over capacity.
The section that we walked through had a nature design, with wooden floors, plant decor, and large glass windows for natural lighting. Access to natural light is important for employee morale and productivity. The Learning and Innovation Center even had a cafe where employees or guests could buy beverages and food and, nearby the cafe, an atrium filled with plants and built with glass windows and a glass ceiling to let in the most sunlight, creating a relaxing space for breaktime. Another way in which Steelcase designed the Center with their employees in mind were staircases. The main staircase was intentionally built wide with easy access to the five floors to encourage natural meetings and minglings among employees to take the place of tight spiral staircases that create hierarchies among employees and inhibit happenstance meetings. While we were standing at the base of the stairs, workers would walk up and down these stairs, and I noticed that some would say hi to Klaus, our guide, when walking through our group, so I assume the staircase serves its purpose.
As for the five floors, they work to serve employees in different ways. The floors contain a variety of different workspaces to fit the needs of the workers. A person cannot concentrate on a task for eight hours straight, so by moving around the different floors and the different work stations, the employee can choose the space that fits the task, thereby increasing their productivity. We were allowed into one room that had two circular tables, rather than one long table. We were told that the two circular tables are to increase mobility to encourage people to contribute to the conversation because they are not deterred by having to walk around a table to reach a screen. Rather, the two separate tables create a space that is easy to move through. Also, the two table setup allows a presenter to move and interact better with their audience, rather than confining themselves to a single edge of a long rectangular. In this room, we were shown Steelcase’s magnetic stickers and peg boards used to help guide discussions. Outside of this room, we eventually meandered to an area that held a prototype table that Steelcase decided to openly place in a highly trafficked area to test out the design on real people in a real setting who had the option to leave feedback about the design.
The different workspaces and various areas of the Learning and Innovation Center also serve as almost showrooms to show potential customers what their work spaces could look like. Steelcase does, however, caution against “copy and pasting” their exact layouts, because the workstations might not fit their particular company and the company’s workers. Steelcase does offer a consulting service to help companies design workspaces to fit their company.
Steelcase’s Learning and Innovation Center lives up to its name. The consideration of employees in the design and showcasing that design to current and potential customers displays Steelcase’s success and capabilities.