Challenge

When Belgium’s Federal Public Service for Social Security switched to flexible working in 2009, 70% of the 1200 civil servants opted to work from home. One-third of them did so one day a week, one-third two days per week and one-third three days a week. This change of culture created a need for more space for conferences and meetings. Chairman Frank Van Massenhove also wanted the building to have a ‘conference floor’ that promoted the organisation’s identity for its own employees and provided a pleasant setting for collaborating and creating with external partners.

Solution

Bulvano suggested to the client uniting the philosophies of smart working and multipurpose use and completely rethought the space plan of the -2 level of the building. Fixed furniture was replaced by solutions easy to assemble and disassemble. These included BeROOMS developed by Bulvano in association with Axel Enthoven. Bulvano designed noise absorbing walls with real-life photographs of external stakeholders of FPS Social Security. Besides confirming the identity of the organisation for its employees, they create an attractive backdrop for external parties who rent the space for events.