INNOVATION The new headquarters of Sony Music in Berlin is not only a workspace for 400 employees, but also a house in which music is produced, presented and listened. studio karhard® was commissioned to design the entire interior. The open-space-areas are structured by innovative telephone-boxes and have an acoustic effect inside and outside and shine with attached plant containers. Also included is the design of meeting rooms, whose high acoustic requirements were achieved via customade media walls that give the rooms a warm hotel-like atmosphere. Innovative is the opportunity of multifunctional use of many rooms like the press room. It can be used for lectures, workshops and pre-editions due to its equipment, but also due to its materiality and atmosphere for yoga sessions and dance workshops. Innovative materials were used to combine function and effect, for example transparent and acoustically effective curtains (acoustical corps from Kvadrat und Svensson) The aforementioned design concept follows an aesthetic, that we call "glamour punk" and which is expressed in materials that one would not expect to be in an office building: stainless steel penny tiles for standard, terrazzo tiles in tea kitchens, furniture with linoleum surfaces, raw ceilings with visible installations. The appearance is more like a hotel with concentrate atmosphere. Surface have also been specially developed, so all interior doors are made of thermally treated steel profiles, which have been given a unique surface. Particular attention was paid to the toilets, which were elegantly started with penny-tiles, special objects and fittings. All toilets have been planned for nonbinary use. The biggest innovation was definitely the rededication of the company canteen as a modern and chic cafeteria in which you cannot only drink coffee but presentations and even live performances can also be carried out without extensive technical preparation. The use of light, not only as a decorative design element, but also as an important best-selling part of building use is expressed in the jukeboxes in which the light changes color when they are used and in the cafeteria in which all lights are integrated into a lighting control. FUNCTIONALITY Special emphasis has been placed on the functionality of the media rooms, as one should be able to operate all of their features without prior technical knowledge. Together with acoustic and media planners we developed an operating concept to ensure the fulfillment of all users’ needs and guarantee an uncomplicated operation of the technical equipment. Thanks to this concept, technically demanding events can be carried out spontaneously in the cafeteria on the ground floor without much preparation. The entire room is equipped with a lighting control system that can be adjusted to events, the time of day or user requests at the push of a button. There is no conventional overall room lighting system. Instead we have generated various light sources, that are individually controllable in order to illuminate the space in the best way possible. A curved glass wall shields the toilets from the event space. It consists of profile glass elements that are illuminated by LED strips. The shape of the elements and the texture of the surface result in a striking visual effect. In addition to the illuminated glass wall, spotlights are used above the counter, which have also been custom-designed for this spot, as well as the pendant lights above the tables. While all lights are integrated into the lighting control system, the stage lighting works for the Cafeteria’s daily operations but can also be adjusted for any person or live act in need of illumination on stage. By choosing an acoustically effective but still transparent curtain by Kvadrat, the natural daylight gets filtered through the lightly pink fabric into the room and is reflected by the dark material in the asphalt screed flooring and takes part of the illumination system. CREATIVITY In order to meet the requirements of a modern media group and to implement them creatively, it was necessary to make some changes in the floor plan of the building. From a conventional office floor plan, an open space office landscape was created with meeting rooms and communication boxes. The building elements have all been specially and adapted to the needs of different communications, from solo video meetings to small meetings, board meetings and international video conferences. Individual rooms have been developed with high-end equipment integrated into acoustic media walls. The lighting has also been completely developed for this building and is based on the climate sails. It has been implemented completely differently in the open space areas and the meeting rooms. In the open space areas is a reduced, barely noticeable LED line and in the meeting rooms is conspicuous chrome-plated Tube light with spot and indirect lighting. The material combinations of the black Terrazzo-tiles with stainless steel kitchens with silver satin finish and yellow upholstered benches (which have been specially designed and produced) are also unusual. The design of the special areas on the ground floor for the cafeteria, conference area and sound studio follows a detailed usage analysis and a spatial response. The conference area with the futuristic design of illuminated glass profile walls, with controllable lighting and, in some cases, an integrated sound system and the subtle use of acoustic elements is also suitable for representative purposes. The cafeteria with a material combination of asphalt flooring, white exposed concrete for the wall cladding and as counter material, profiled glass walls with programmable lighting therefore not only serve as a decorative background for drinking coffee, but also as a room for meetings, presentations and performances on a fully equipped small stage. All surfaces are haptically appealing and timeless; together with the elegant furniture, this creates a communicative and inspiring atmosphere. SUSTAINABILITY The entire building is subject to a „Leed Gold" certification. For the interior area, we strived to work with local, partly also small companies to install authentic and durable materials, which are easy to clean and will take on patina through use and they will hopefully be in use for a long time to come. The entire building is equipped with an intelligent light control, that turns off the light in the areas where nobody is. We have almost always been able to follow the maxim of “no plastic“. The choice of furniture depends on our individual preferences of Scandinavian manufacturers providing high-quality products. We made an exception for the carpet from the company ege carpets, the back of which is made of recycled fishing nets. The exposed aggregate concrete elements come from local production, just as most of the furnishing work was outsourced to smaller and local companies. When selecting the furniture, we placed great emphasis on quality and durability, a lot of the furniture comes from Scandinavian manufacturers and is backed by traceable manufacturer certificates and supply chains. The following organizational concepts have been implemented in the building as part of the interior planning: Rubbish avoidance: there are no individual rubbish bins, rubbish is disposed of centrally and is separated. Water filter: Drinking water filters for chilled and, if desired, carbonated water are built into all kitchenettes, there are no water bottles, and certainly no plastic bottles. Other drinks are served in returnable bottles. INCLUSIVITY Of course, the cafeteria can also be used by people with restricted mobility. Although there are fully accessible toilets in the building, it was important to us to integrate an additional, wheelchair-accessible toilet cubicle in the cafeteria. With its stainless steel Penny tiled walls, anthracite sanitary objects and tube lights it might easily be one of the most stylish accessible toilets in Berlin.