The Team Bank, leading German consumer credit expert, recently moved into their new HQ in Nuremberg with over 700 employees.
Pioneering vision
The interior fit-out of the building was designed by Swiss architecture and design studio Evolution Design, while the building itself was created by Austrian architecture firm Baumschlager Eberle and executed by Nuremberg architects GP Wirth Architekten. The building was the result of a design competition in which the pioneering design brief already had easyCredit’s visions and values in mind: transparency, openness and communication incorporated in its internal space concept and modesty and simplicity displayed in its external appearance. The resulting office building encompasses over 15'000 m2 (160’000 ft2) of large open-space work areas.
Evolution Design’s interior design concept continued to place great importance in expressing the key values and philosophy of easyCredit: applying an innovative ‚agile working’ concept approach to the work environment which clearly expresses easyCredit’s claim to be innovator and trendsetter in the banking sector of Germany. ’The easyCredit-Haus with its innovative work environment supports our trendsetter claim and demonstrates that at easyCredit we are already living in the future today,’ says Alexander Boldyreff, Chief Executive Officer of TeamBank.
Unique Workplace Design generously supporting employees’ needs
The biggest challenge was the change from a traditional workspace with dedicated desks to a completely new activity-based style of working. Thus, the building was divided into ‚Homezones’ and ‚Meet & Create Zones. Each ‚Homebase’ consists of an unique mixture of different workplace typologies to cater for the different needs of the employees depending on their daily activities.
A share rate of 75% was introduced, based on extensive occupancy and work typology research. As a consequence, extra space was gained for the ‚Meet & Create Zone’. This area is the driver for creativity and innovation and consists of a large number of diverse informal areas and specially designed spaces for creativity and focus. ‘We fulfil the objective of networking, which does not only foster collegial relationship and communication, but also significantly raises our agility, quality and innovative strength,’ concludes Alexander Boldyreff, Chief Executive Officer of TeamBank.
Sophisticated Interior Concept with a vibrant city-flair
The internal functional organisation of the building utilises the idea of a city: a main staff restaurant and a Barista Bar with a vibrant ‚marketplace’ feeling, the ‚Homezone’, consisting of several ‚Homebases’ creating individual local neighbourhoods for the employees to work in, and the inner ring of the building as the ‚Meet & Create Zone’. All these public areas are part of the city concept with ‚parks’ and ‚street scenes’ to encourage a higher frequency of informal and accidental meetings.
Inspiring Work Environment based on strong Identity and Branding
Another very important part was the identity and branding concept. Throughout the building all spaces were designed in order to bring the company’s culture and vision alive. The result is a building in which easyCredit and its employees can find an inspiring home which reflects their extraordinary company spirit and enables them to identify strongly with their new workplace and HQ, and in which they can share their values of fairness, teamwork, transparency and communication everyday. ‘The team spirit becomes stronger by the unconventional concept of the easyCredit’s work environment. This way we enhance having fun at work and building an emotional connection with the TeamBank as an employer,” says Philipp Blomeyer, Division Manager of Communications, Legal and Human Resources at TeamBank.
Setting trends with a new activity and needs based work environment
The new easyCredit HQ is an excellent example of successfully bringing together a new workplace concept while strongly expressing the company’s identity and culture throughout the building. Thus allowing easyCredit to clearly demonstrate its vision for innovation and setting trends in the banking sector of Germany.
