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anySCALE Shanghai Director Simon Berg presented at Design Shanghai 2020 on a topic called A Sharp Change in Corporate Workplace Design. He showed the audience examples of anySCALE's body of work on contemporary workspaces.
One of the early anySCALE projects, the Mercedes Benz R&D Center, had a traditional corporate office and a design studio under one roof, highlighting the ambivalence of corporate workspace design: at one end, corporate, rules-based, and standardized; at the other end, open, agile, and flexible. Placing these seemingly incompatible spectrums side by side was a concept ahead of its time in 2013. anySCALE harnessed the project's success into the concept of "co-working," which soon impacted its corporate office designs. Central to this philosophy, according to Berg, is the "reduction of hierarchy."
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The last two examples included two similar automotive companies. Mercedes had identified issues with stale hierarchies and a distinct lack of invention.
When the company moved their Hong Kong headquarters from a traditional building into a waterside warehouse, they wanted a state of the art co-working environment. anySCALE used design as a tool to inject new life into the organization. Porsche also sensed the benefits of a forward-thinking environment for its new Shanghai headquarters. The finished design is a modern office that pays tribute to and integrates brand heritage, motorsport, and lifestyle, adding value to the company by making it more attractive for young people.