dm-drogerie markt
Initial situation
Friendly, bright, close to nature and focusing on people: With its “dialogicum”, dm drogerie-markt GmbH in Karlsruhe has created a new headquarters that reflects the special characteristics and values of the company in its architecture.
The new building for 1600 employees was erected on the north-east side of the motorway junction on Durlacher Allee. If you drive along the avenue from Durlach to Karlsruhe, you get the impression of being in a large green space despite the separation by the motorway. The design objective was to maintain this urban quality and to bring it into harmony with the spatial requirements and the corporate culture.
The result is a flat, green building that blends harmoniously into its surroundings with organic shapes and offers plenty of room for new ideas and a new way of working together. The “dialogicum” is a building based on a honeycomb-like floor plan structure grouped around eight inner courtyards. In addition to 1600 workplaces, the building also offers conference areas and a staff restaurant.
In addition to the administration building, the parking garage hill on the other side of the street includes two areas especially for project work.
The project: approx. 41 000 m2 administration, approx. 22 000 m2 multi-storey car park/special use
Workstations: 1600
Customer: dm-drogerie markt GmbH + Co KG
Architects: Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei, Stuttgart
Place: Karlsruhe
Construction period: 2016 – 2019
Design Process
Sustainability is one of the central values of dm. Accordingly, a new corporate headquarters was to be created with the “dialogicum”, which would be able to meet the constantly changing requirements in the long term. At the same time, it was important to dm that the new working environment in the administration building expresses a high appreciation for each individual employee.
To develop this special working environment, dm chose ophelis as its partner. Together, an interdisciplinary team developed a concept that optimally combines employee wishes with the requirements of a sustainable company.
Implementation
Modular workstations with matching partitions were developed to accommodate the architecture of the building: The central element are electromotive height-adjustable work desks in a polygonal shape, which can be assembled to create different configurations. For this purpose, foot cantilevers of different lengths were designed to ensure optimum table stability with a polygonal shape.
Workstation combinations for two or four users (configurable from two desk types) and adaptation to three- and six-user workstation combinations are possible. Special features are freestanding partitions with surrounding wooden frames in maple veneer, developed for the project. These serve both as privacy screens and acoustic screening. They do not need to be anchored in the floor and their symmetrical design allows the luminaire to be integrated into the partition on both sides. The textiles, in different colours, provide orientation and harmonise with the ceiling colours.