Tailor-made: Dentsu and furnishing partner König + Neurath

Brands formulate promises to which consumers can orient themselves and, of course, this also applies to the companies that breathe life into brands in the first place, like international marketing agency Dentsu, for example. Dentsu has found a reliable long-term partner for their office furnishing needs in German specialist König + Neurath which not only promises, but also delivers highly adaptable and qualitatively convincing furniture for modern working environments, such as at Dentsu's three newest locations in Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich.

For those who may not be familiar with Dentsu, here is a brief introduction: Behind the name is a group of companies with a total of 66,000 employees at locations worldwide. As an agency network, Dentsu is responsible for the strategic brand development of brands such as Volkswagen, Siemens, Grohe and Deutsche Bahn. Located at Schwabinger Tor in Munich since the end of 2018, and at Westhafen in Frankfurt since the end of 2019, Dentsu has brought together several of its previously scattered agencies to a central city location, bringing it even closer to its customers in both regions. The office in Munich covers more than 1,800 square metres spread over two floors, the Frankfurt office 7,000, where employees come together in an openly organised spatial structure.

If you think back five years or so to the pre-pandemic period when the offices were being planned, it seems almost avant-garde that the company was already operating with desk sharing and flexible working time models. The interior planning also had to take this into account, with first-class furniture that was uncomplicated to use. Dentsu was supported in the interior design of the Munich and Frankfurt locations by the Berlin-based specialist dealer and planning office Graef.

‘The decisive factor for working with König + Neurath again on the office design was the pleasant experience we had on previous projects,’ says Daniel Ahrens, Director of Workplace at Dentsu. ‘Some of our interior design requirements we simply could not find off the shelf. König + Neurath, however, is able to customise its products to a high degree, so this suited us very well.’

There was, then, no question that the same partner would also be involved at the Zurich location, which followed in 2021 and was designed and realised by local planning studio Büronauten. The 1,550 sqm‘ Club Office’ in the heart of the city accommodates 110 employees. A decisive focus in the planning was the establishment of the activity-based working principle, in which workplaces can be chosen and visited according to individual preference and task. However, even before the actual development of a corporate architecture and design concept began, workflow analysis was conducted and workshops held on the different user groups.

The findings resulted in a representative, bright and multi-layered space, with smaller and larger individual work areas, open team meeting tables and glazed conference rooms, high-quality furnished lounges and informal meeting zones. There are two communicative meeting places: the reception desk with a standing bar and professional barista coffee machine as well as a huge semi-circular sofa landscape where spontaneous exchange – also among the different teams – is encouraged. The industrial charm of the property is matched by the use of plywood panels for plain desks, shelf walls, lockers and wall panelling. König + Neurath's products include electrically height-adjustable TALO.S standing/sitting tables and office chairs from the OKAY.III series.

Ahrens emphasises how important it was for Dentsu to contribute its own points to the furniture configuration. ‘Of course, office furnishing is always a question of budget, and at König + Neurath we have the advantage of a high level of vertical integration and consulting competence. For example, we were able to achieve an extremely slim appearance by chamfering the table tops. Whereas with other suppliers we would have had to use a much more expensive standard material to achieve a similarly filigree effect.’

The full-range supplier has thus once again succeeded in convincing Dentsu of its merits – by manufacturing made-to-measure furniture from a single source at its production site in Karben, Hesse, and also delivering from there with its own logistics and assembly teams. With its customised product solutions, it does not matter whether it is one or several hundred units of a piece of furniture, the manufacturer responds to every request in the best possible way. And what better promise can a brand make?

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