Leading the company towards the new ways of working through an open and interactive space: this is the aim that guided Cushman & Wakefield in designing the Schneider Electric Worklife Business Center on the outskirt of Bologna (Italy). A contemporary environment with a central internal garden in its core, dedicated to foster education and training also through communication and collaboration.
How do we create an office environment for a leader in the energy management innovation company with the need for increasing internal creativity and know-how?
This is the question that Cushman & Wakefield answered throughout the 2600 sqm of collaborative space and 89 working stations of the Schneider Electric Worklife Business Center at Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna, Italy), a headquarter open to the enterprises, institutions and schools of the territory.
The Worklife Business Center hosts the commercial offices of the area and an Innovation Hub dedicated to the automation EcoStruxure Plant & Machine platform.
The project started from the preexisting architecture, using the central court as an internal garden, where tables, seats and parasols create the core of the socializing and sharing platform that was the main inspiration of the project, along with the lounge and the cafeteria at the two opposite sides.
The flexible interior design is based on an open space that can be modified over the time with both assigned and shared workstations, locker areas and 8 closed office for informal meetings and brainstorming sessions, all with furniture provided by Cardex.
However, most of the space, with different training rooms, conference rooms and a showroom, is thought to be a platform for education and formation projects.
Eventually, the Worklife Business Center’s peculiarity consists in the pyramidal skylights that allow an effective use of natural light that becomes an actual architectonic element that creates avenues and tracks that becomes a pathway for fostering collaboration and communication.
Every environment can be, also, booked by a dedicated software and it is provided by a high level of acoustic comfort through suspended acoustic panels.
Text by Gabriele Masi.
Credits
Project Supervision: Lamberto Agostini.
Strategic planning Advise: Paola Migliavacca.
Interior Design and Project Management: Eleonora Prassino and Eleonora Bellini.
