The Treehouse – Office for HassiaGruppe
HassiaGruppe, headquartered in Bad Vilbel in Hessen, is Germany’s largest brand manufacturer in the soft drinks sector. In 2018, prestige brand Bionade joined the portfolio of the over 150-year-old, family-owned company. A wide spectrum of brand values merge in the company’s new office building: a pioneering spirit and innovative drive meet tradition and solid entrepreneurship. This not only means a change of space, but is also the right time to reflect on working environments and work culture at Hassia. Key to the new approach are communicative places where a common corporate culture can emerge. In designing this open-plan office, we have chosen a room-in-room system that combines order and freedom, while allowing for flexible, changeable spatial zoning.

The ground floor is the central locus for cultural exchange. Featuring a well-stocked bar, the space makes a powerful corporate gesture that extends a welcome to employees and guests alike. With its communication spaces, lounge quality and beverage offering, the ground floor is no classic reception area, but more an open space for hospitality.

With a flexible room-in-room system on the upper floors, we provide a zoned work landscape, in which a suitable location presents itself for every task. Storage spaces, whiteboards and acoustic panels are flexibly integrated into the frame system. Around the building’s core of functional areas and zones for concentrated work, a mix of different work typologies emerges: open areas that encourage exchange and collaboration, as well as workplaces that allow for concentrated, heads-down work. Alcoves extrude outwards through the façade of the building. They serve as places of retreat or as meeting niches.

Above the main entrance, we make a strong statement about the importance of nature and sustainability: We have planted a fruit tree orchard, thus creating a green, living oasis in the midst of industrial production halls. The building envelope also flies the flag for sustainability. A disused Bionade brewing kettle was melted down to create the copper skin for the building. The material design is as diverse as the flavours offered by Hassia and Bionade. A concrete, core-activated ceiling enables environmentally friendly heating, and a lamellae ceiling made from recycled PET bottles ensures excellent acoustics. Together with carpets from our OBJECT CARPET × Ippolito Fleitz Group collection, which feature Econyl yarn made from repurposed fishing nets, the ceiling and floor convey a self-imposed commitment to sustainable action and sound business practices. Another equally effective acoustic element is the wooden wall panelling that runs throughout the office. It refers to the naturalness of the company’s products and, taken with the trees in front of the building, literally turns the office into a treehouse.