The nat­ural ar­eas of the Nether­lands are ever shrink­ing. More and more land is be­ing used to cater to the de­mand for new res­i­den­tial/​non-res­i­den­tial build­ings and liv­ing space. At the same time, the num­ber of empty premises is in­creas­ing. Out­dated build­ings are left de­serted. They ei­ther be­come run-down or are de­mol­ished. This sit­u­a­tion is forc­ing us to re­think how we re­spond to our de­mand for space.

Stu­dio Groen+Schild cher­ish what we al­ready have. We save na­ture and cre­ate new spaces by trans­form­ing ex­ist­ing build­ings into sus­tain­able build­ings and giv­ing them a new lease of life.

We are very ex­pe­ri­enced in re­al­lo­cat­ing build­ings that no longer serve their orig­i­nal pur­pose, such as a ware­house, a barn or a cas­tle. Char­ac­ter­is­tic build­ings that can still tell a story and en­rich our en­vi­ron­ment. Trans­formation is a spe­cialty that few can of­fer. Ex­per­tise in the area of tech­nique and use is re­quired. The ar­chi­tects and interior ar­chi­tects of Stu­dio Groen+Schild have this ex­per­tise in abun­dance. We stand alone in our ca­pa­bil­ity of cre­at­ing a unique design in an ex­ist­ing struc­ture. We cre­ate architecture from within, from the people.

Our view of work­ing has changed. The dig­i­tal­iza­tion of in­for­ma­tion and processes al­low us to work any­where, any­time. This has led to em­ploy­ees hav­ing more say about when and where they per­form their ac­tiv­i­ties. There is more room for self-man­age­ment, own ini­tia­tive and per­sonal de­vel­op­ment. Fur­ther­more, there is a need to meet each other, ex­change in­for­ma­tion and share know­ledge. Stu­dio Groen+Schild are very ex­pe­ri­enced in this New Ap­proach to Work­ing. We ex­am­ine the work processes, the cul­ture and the po­ten­tial to change of an or­ga­ni­za­tion and then set about de­sign­ing an in­no­v­a­tive of­fice con­cept. We work in­ten­sively with the user on this. To­gether with the em­ploy­ees, we de­ter­mine the pro­gram of re­quire­ments, the work­ing en­vi­ron­ment that suits the or­ga­ni­za­tion and the rules for the new en­vi­ron­ment. We en­sure there is a pleas­ant work­ing en­vi­ron­ment and de­velop work­places that suit the ac­tiv­i­ties within the or­ga­ni­za­tion. Flex­i­bil­ity is im­por­tant: it is the peo­ple that move, not the walls. A work en­vi­ron­ment that meets the needs of em­ploy­ees has a pos­i­tive ef­fect on pro­duc­tiv­ity and sick­ness leave. A suc­cess­ful of­fice con­cept can pos­i­tively fa­cil­i­tate work processes and the ap­pear­ance of the interior com­ple­ments the iden­tity of the or­ga­ni­za­tion. Em­ploy­ees feel com­fort­able in their new en­vi­ron­ment, feel pride in it and treat it ac­cord­ingly. En­thu­si­as­tic users are the am­bas­sadors of The New Ap­proach to Work­ing.

At stu­dio Groen+Schild, we do not de­velop our de­signs in­di­vid­u­ally but in a team of ded­i­cated ex­perts. The com­po­si­tion of such a team de­pends on the na­ture and scope of the pro­ject. Stu­dio Groen+Schild have a qual­i­fied team of ex­perts in house. Our ar­chi­tects, interior ar­chi­tects, styl­ists and ar­chi­tec­tural en­gi­neers stay abreast of all the lat­est de­vel­op­ments and tech­niques in their branch. We also call on ex­perts from other fields when han­dling large, com­plex is­sues. For in­stance, we are not strangers to en­gag­ing his­to­ri­ans, artists, sus­tain­abil­ity ad­vi­sors and tech­ni­cians, when called for. Col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mit­ment are es­sen­tial to thor­oughly un­der­stand­ing design pro­jects. Our full 360-de­gree per­spec­tive on pro­jects has raised our de­signs to a higher plane. Qual­ity is born from com­bin­ing know­ledge, ex­pe­ri­ence and cre­ativ­ity and through in­spir­ing each other.

Our aim is to de­velop de­signs with a longer life cy­cle that are good for peo­ple and the en­vi­ron­ment. We ac­com­plish this by plac­ing peo­ple cen­tral and cre­at­ing ar­eas that are com­fort­able and func­tion op­ti­mally. If peo­ple feel con­nected with their en­vi­ron­ment, then they shall value it and treat it ac­cord­ingly. In ad­di­tion to this, a design that is wor­thy of the fu­ture is a tes­ta­ment to high qual­ity. It is time­less and arouses the imag­i­na­tion. It is in har­mony with the en­vi­ron­ment, flex­i­ble but not stan­dard. We ac­cept our re­spon­si­bil­ity. We choose sus­tain­able ma­te­ri­als and prod­ucts that are easy to main­tain. As well as en­vi­ron­men­tally-friendly tech­niques and build­ing meth­ods. We stay abreast of new de­vel­op­ments and al­ways ap­ply com­mon­sense. We cre­ate an at­mos­phere dur­ing de­sign­ing for sub­stan­tive dis­cus­sions on sus­tain­abil­ity. We give form to sus­tain­abil­ity by cre­at­ing de­signs that com­ple­ment peo­ple and are close to na­ture.

A suc­cess­ful design is just the same as a piece of cloth­ing that fits per­fectly and feels com­fort­able. The user must feel a con­nec­tion to it. They have to feel pride in it and be in­spired by it, find com­fort from it or be cheered by it. Peo­ple are cen­tral in our work. What they see, feel, smell and hear in­flu­ences their well-be­ing. As spe­cial­ists in ex­pe­ri­enc­ing space, we are well aware of the in­gre­di­ents needed to cre­ate en­vi­ron­ments where peo­ple feel com­fort­able. The most im­por­tant in­gre­di­ent is iden­tity. Peo­ple, who can iden­tify with a space in which they find them­selves, feel at ease. We have the ex­perts, ex­pe­ri­ence and sen­si­tiv­ity that are needed to trans­late the iden­tity of the user into a con­cept. We design from the heart. The more users, the harder it is to ful­fill all wishes and de­sires. Groen+Schild de­vel­oped a work­shop to help us ac­cess the 'ten­der side' and to rise above the per­sonal. The val­ues for­mu­lated in here are mean­ing­ful prin­ci­ples in the design process.