Redesign of a citizen's office
Redesign of a citizen's office © Jörg Hempel
Acoustic walls in the citizens' office
Acoustic walls in the citizens' office © Jörg Hempel
Fast counter in the citizen's office
Fast counter in the citizen's office © Jörg Hempel
Height-adjustable office table
Height-adjustable office table © Jörg Hempel
Reception area in the citizens' office
Reception area in the citizens' office © Jörg Hempel
Reception counter in the citizens' office
Reception counter in the citizens' office © Jörg Hempel
Flyers and form trays
Flyers and form trays © Jörg Hempel
Photo booth
Photo booth © Jörg Hempel
Seating in the waiting area
Seating in the waiting area © Jörg Hempel
Detail furniture foot
Detail furniture foot © Jörg Hempel
Projectteam Gerhard Kalhöfer, David Ebel, Johannes Haucke
Client Stadt Monheim am Rhein
City Monheim am Rhein
involved Lichtplanung: Silvia Quintiliani - Dinnebier Licht GmbH
Date 2017
Copyright Jörg Hempel

Office Scape - Customer Service Center for a Council

The project, a citizens’ office in the town hall, refutes the usual expectations: normally, office rooms are functional grey places without character. The citizen waits bored and passively in an emotionless atmosphere.
The owner’s wish was never to think about administration. Lightness and colourfulness signal openness and free accessibility. This breaks the usual design connotations and formal stereotypes of administration in the areas of the foyer and citizens’ office. The goal is a room with added value that contradicts the stereotype of administration.

The necessary, functional space is, however, sensually expanded by the superimposition of its interior elements through location-related associations and information from the areas of landscape, architecture and culture. The codes of the service landscape are part of a communicative strategy between the room and the user. The visitor is invited to stroll through the room in order to visually “start a conversation” with the informal offers. The architecture offers direct or indirect forms of communication: words and text excerpts with a literary or historical reference to exist alongside, images that bring stories and special places in the city to mind. The aim is to contrast the real space with a fictitious space with local identity that subjectively shortens the waiting time by making the user curious and activating it.