Back to the New Normal: CSMM gives digital services consultancy Reply an architectural makeover fit for Germany’s capital city

Munich, 04 October 2021. The consulting and architecture firm CSMM have given the German capital another design highlight with its new contemporary open-plan design for the Reply Group’s Berlin premises. Much like the six other European locations CSSM has designed for this global consulting, systems integration and digital services company, the goal here was to create interiors that customers and staff immediately recognise as a Reply space, but that also offers “Replyers” an incentive to come back to the office. “Designing what is now our seventh Reply workplace is both a validation and a challenge,” commented Tiziana Feighofen-Longo, Team Leader at CSMM Dusseldorf. “We used the Design Manual we developed for Reply’s corporate interior design as our starting point and then customised individual features and added new elements to underscore the industrial look & feel of this revitalised building. With ample space for communication and social interaction in the spacious open-plan layout, we designed a workplace that promotes a healthy corporate culture and creates a stronger bond between employee and employer.”

After CSMM were awarded the German Design Award in 2020 for the first flagship Reply office in Munich, the redesigned Berlin office gives the consultancy another centrally located hub to drive sales of its novel business models and digital services. The CSMM team built on the existing corporate design concept developed to reflect Reply’s corporate identity, reimagining it in line with the more industrial vibe of the German capital. Clever customisation and individual touches go beyond the established guidelines in terms of furnishing as well as the colour and material palette. A key focus while redesigning this space was to openly acknowledge the impact of the pandemic and create a workplace that conveys a sense of community and belonging to staff returning to the office.

Spaces to share
“To provide a real alternative to the home office, we made communication-friendly, eye-catching spaces a design priority in the Lützow Strasse project,” Feighofen-Longo explains. The main reception desk is on the third floor and the focal point of the floorplan on the eighth and ninth floors is a large “piazza”. These communicative and interactive spaces feature vibrant furniture that invite staff to collaborate, to hang out together or even to have some alone time. In addition to the Living Walls that are a core element of the Group-wide corporate design concept, the Berlin office features new modular systems on all five floors, from fixed yet transparent partitions known as “hanging walls” to moveable sliding walls. The colour and material palette focuses on multiplex surfaces and more muted tones as well as the new addition of neon hues, while CSMM’s workplace pros added exposed concrete and ducting to underscore the building’s industrial look & feel.

Communication is key
Tiziana Feighofen-Longo sums up the design as follows: “Communication is the key to everything in the design for Reply’s Berlin office. Not only because we as designers are always in dialogue with our clients, but also because communication is the guiding principle for our reorganisation of the space. By prioritising space for interaction, we created a workplace that encourages employees to come together – after all of these months in isolation – and to feel more invested in the work they do every day.”