A 1950s facade houses a modern working environment—this is the new temporary accommodation for 300 staff from the University of Bonn. Units of Central Administration previously housed in the University Main Building have found a temporary new home just 500 meters away on the corner of Poppelsdorfer Allee/Bonner Talweg. The golden lettering “Deutscher Herold” emblazoned on the glass entrance door in Fraktur points to the original owner of the building, which now houses a number of administrative divisions and sections of the University of Bonn. The University Archives, University printing services and the mail room have also found new accommodation here. The choice fell on this facility not least because it allows staff to work in close proximity to the other administrative units and the Rectorate.
A further step towards the renovation of the University Main Building
The move to the Deutscher Herold building was caused by the pressing need for extensive renovation work in the University Main Building. Although the yellow baroque palace is as beautiful as ever, its outdated electrical system and old windows are in urgent need of replacement. Fire safety needs to be brought up to date, and the plaster is even crumbling in places. It will take at least ten years to bring the Bonn landmark up to date—a truly monumental undertaking.
Despite the considerable disruption involved in the process, the University of Bonn has recognized the opportunity contained within this challenge. “The move to the Herold was a good opportunity for us to design the office space in such a way that meets the needs of a modern university administration,” explains Holger Gottschalk, Provost of the University of Bonn. After all, the self-image of Central Administration has changed significantly in recent years, moving away from an authority toward a modern academic management body.
Incorporating the New Work initiative into university development
Entsprechend wurde das Herold-Gebäude vor dem Einzug nicht nur modernisiert, sondern auch in einen innovativen Bürostandort umgebaut, der ein passendes Umfeld für Projektarbeit und kollaboratives Arbeiten bietet. „New Work ist für uns ein zentrales Thema in der Hochschulentwicklung. Die neuen Räume im Deutschen Herold fördern und ermöglichen gezielt nIncorporating the New Work initiative into university developmenteue Formen der Zusammenarbeit“, betont Gottschalk.
Auf einer Fläche von mehr als 5.000 Quadratmetern finden sich rund 300 Arbeitsplätze in Büros und Open Spaces, mehrere Besprechungs- und Seminarräume, Teeküchen und ein Eltern-Kind-Raum. „Mehr Flexibilität, mehr Platz für Begegnung und Austausch, ein angenehmes Arbeitsumfeld – das waren die wichtigsten Anliegen der Mitarbeitenden. Wir haben ein breites Spektrum an Räumen geschaffen, damit alle den besten Ort für ihre jeweilige Tätigkeit finden“, erklärt Marion Duisberg, Leiterin des Dezernats Liegenschaften, das für die bauliche Umsetzung verantwortlich war. Durch diese neue Konzeption der Räume wird es möglich, auf einer Gesamtfläche, die der im Hauptgebäude entspricht, zukünftig auch Personalaufwuchs unterzubringen, und damit den Vorgaben des Landes Rechnung zu tragen, durch neue Arbeitsmodelle Mietflächen und damit Mietkosten einzusparen.
The Provost is convinced that the new office landscape will also makes the University of Bonn more attractive as an employer: “In view of the prevailing shortage of skilled workers, it is becoming increasingly important to offer a modern working environment in which employees feel comfortable,” says Gottschalk. “The project has therefore brought the University a big step forward in terms of employer branding.”
A passer-by would never guess that the neoclassical facade of the Herold building accommodates a state-of-the-art working environment. The initial view of the building interior is also dominated by its historical elements: mosaics, light natural stone cladding and bronze ceiling chandeliers all point to the origin of the building in the 1950s. Moving from the stairwell onto one of the office floors, the visitor travels from mid-century modern to the present in just a few steps: white walls, sound-absorbing carpeting, height-adjustable desks with two monitors and an ergonomic office chair, acoustic elements, plants and a variety of seating in the University colors of yellow, blue and gray. The effect is modern, bright and inviting—a stark contrast to the rooms of the University Main Building.
The teams were involved in the design of their rooms
The sections redeployed to the Deutscher Herold building invited the input of their staff in the design of their new work spaces. Michael Prill, head of the Digitalization of Administrative Processes Program (PDaP) first held a workshop with his team to reflect on the fundamentals. How do we work together? How are we productive as a team? “The move was a trigger for us to take a closer look at these questions,” says Prill.
Then it came to the detailed planning: “We mapped out all the forms of work for which we needed the office: areas for concentrated work, collaboration, hybrid meetings and project work.” Over the course of several workshops with an interior designer and other sections quartered in the building, the PDaP team developed a multi-functional office landscape for its nine members.
An open, collaborative space
The area housing the PDaP team provides three individual offices each with a desk and a small meeting table to enable concentrated individual work, telephone calls and pair discussions. The team also set up two project rooms—one classic and one multi-functional with a video conferencing facility and tables whose tops can be folded up and used as whiteboards. These rooms host project work, hybrid meetings and large-scale video conferences.
A large open space with three desks and a high meeting table for standing or high stool-seating also houses two small high-backed sofas which combine to create a shielded environment for discussions of up to four people. The team has deliberately dispensed with telephones and video cameras: “Open space does not mean open plan, but seeks to facilitate collaborative working practices, discussions and networking,” emphasizes Prill.
Some divisions have abolished personal offices
Personal offices have been abolished at the PDaP. Before starting work in the morning, staff are required to select their workstation according to the task that is due next—a project room for a team brainstorming session, for example, or an individual office for an undisturbed phone call. As such, they often change rooms several times a day. The PDaP is not alone in adopting this practice. Many divisions located in the Herold building no longer have a fixed workplace for all their employees. This increased flexibility, together with impact of working from home, has enabled managers to implement a slight reduction in the allocation of office space per person.
To ensure that collaboration in the new office environment runs as smoothly as possible, the PDaP has adopted a clean desk policy. Everyone clears their workstation completely in the evening so that it can be used by someone else the next day. To this end, all employees have their own roll container in which they can store their work equipment and personal belongings.
Not all divisions in the Herold building have completely abolished personal offices. The Human Resources division for example, which occupies two floors of the building with around 90 employees, has taken a different approach. As the division still uses a lot of paper files, data protection requirements mean that most members of staff still have their own office. “The sensitive discussions that we conduct require strict confidentiality, for which we need our own office,” explains the deputy director of the division Thomas Rosenkranz. Nevertheless, the division also has an open space which staff enjoy using. The travel expenses team for example, meets there regularly to develop ideas.
More opportunities for interaction
It is not only the open space that creates more opportunities for interaction. The fact that the division is no longer spread out as in the Main Building, but is housed much more compactly generates synergies between sections that previously had few points of contact. The heads of section are also located in close proximity. “The move has made meetings in the division more intensive and communication more relaxed and open. Our employees find this very positive,” says Rosenkranz.
Human Resources Development, Organizational Development and Health Management reports similar experiences. 20 people in four teams work here. Before the move, the unit was housed in the Alte Sternwarte, mainly in individual offices. “We were really isolated at times and often fell out of the loop on important matters,” says Head of Unit Nicola Thiele, describing a situation that had been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The move to the new premises made a fresh start possible. It soon became clear how the unit wanted to use its open space, and it decided to establish an open interaction area. “We want to live the idea of New Work, collaborating much more closely and networking better with each other,” says Thiele. This is clearly working: “Staff now often meet in the open space for spontaneous meetings. The various teams are also mingling much more than before.”
All furniture is flexible
The front area of the open space houses several standing desks and two conventional desks—“the two most popular workstations on our floor,” says Thiele. A mobile monitor is available for hybrid meetings. Various seating options are distributed across the rear area. As all the furniture is on casters and can be rearranged with ease. The open space has not just had the effect of strengthening collaboration within this unit, but is open to all employees in the building, who use it for a number of purposes including meetings.
Even though the new office environment has been well received, Thiele reports some initial concerns. Whilst some were concerned that they could come to work and not find a desk, others wanted to know where they could leave their personal belongings. Thiele was able to allay many of the anxieties through good communication: “I reported as much as possible to the team,” she says.
The spontaneous development of the room booking system
The team responds to challenges arising from the new working situation with agility: “We try out what works. What doesn’t work, we do differently,” says Thiele. A good example of this is the room booking system. Lacking a tool with which to perform this task when they moved in to the new building, the team spontaneously developed one themselves. Magnets bearing the name of individual members of staff are affixed to a whiteboard set up in the entrance area, showing the various rooms in a plan of the office. The magnets can be moved to reflect changing occupation of each room and the current status of each member of staff: working from home, on a business trip or on vacation. “This has worked very well so far,” says Thiele.
In general, the New Work project implemented at the Deutscher Herold building seems to have been a success. Nicola Thiele’s unit recently held a team day to reflect on the new working environment. “It was really nice to see how positively everyone has received the new rooms and how comfortable people feel here,” she reports. The working atmosphere in particular has changed for the better. Thiele has also noticed this in herself: “I am much happier going to the office than I used to be, because I like it here so much.”
