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."
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.