Play is the new work! In a time when ambient technology is taking over more and more annoying routines, the task of the human being in the working world adopts new forms. Accuracy and precision are better suited to machines today. Innovation, wit and surprise, however, cannot be mathematized. They are the most valuable human resource.
Stakhanov is history! Today good work is not simply measured by the quantity of output. Unusual, weird ideas are sought as the first step towards an open future full of possibilities. Thinking outside the box’ means breaking away from conventions and sluggish habits, striking new paths. For such playful creativity, the familiar, preferably neutral workplace does not help. Instead, we need the stimulus from outside, the impulse that makes us think.
Instead of grey, uniform workplaces, in which one culls in boring repetition, instead of rows of cubicals built in the same way, Studio Aisslinger seeks to design working landscapes that combine the possibility to focus with openness of thought, concentration with dreamy reverie. The chair-desk corset has to be removed, a new space structure is needed, allowing to move freely, to walk, to stand and to recline, to do joint sports activities, intensive conversation or rather wild association. The workplace thus becomes a playground, giving room to trial and error as well as providing a stage for playful virtuosity.
Innovation and wit, irritation and surprise become part of the production process. Whether together at the big table, in small groups in the break-off units or singularly plural, withdrawn and yet as part of the community in little work capsules – the play instinct becomes the force driving creation.
With the conversion of one floor in the Jägermeister administration building in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, Studio Aisslinger has created a paradigmatic example for this kind of new working landscape. 32 fixed desk places yielded to a new, 530 sqm open structure, which will give employees of all departments space to develop their creativity and at the same time strengthen the new Jägermeister brand image.
The space is an offer to leave ones comfort zone and open up to new things – new encounters, new ideas. The flexibility of the room corresponds to its flexible use. Opportunities for movement and relaxation, for joint cooking and casual exchange can be easily combined with spontaneous presentations of individual projects or joint development of ideas. All modules, from the bar, the basketball court and the large round sofa to the locked meeting box, are designed for individual, playful appropriation.
