Spirit of play: how this treehouse office sparks biophilic joy

Photography: Philip Kottlorz

Joining the ranks of the family owned HassianGruppe in 2018, German soft drink brand Bionade has been awarded a new office space with a unique selling point: a coveted spot in the leafy treeline of Bad Vilbel, Hessen. The vision of multidisciplinary design studio Ippolito Fleitz Group, glass-walled walkways lead through neighbouring trees to the central building within, clad with a copper façade complementing the muted, organic palette of the woods. Inside, The Treehouse is home to a contemporary, open-plan office with flexible configurations baked in, offering a collaborative, colourful workspace that takes cues from the surrounding landscape.

A bar stocked with Bionade products offers staff and visitors a warm welcome to the main ground-floor entrance, while those venturing further inside will be greeted with versatile, zoned landscapes for lectures, meetings or coworking. In pursuit of flexibility and agile working, an open, stepped seating area can be used for spontaneous meetings, as well social events and company-wide townhall meetings. A central meeting island can also be closed off behind a semi-opaque curtain for moments that require more privacy or independent focus.

Upper floors feature a room-in-room system, with storage spaces, whiteboards and acoustic panels integrated into the building’s core functional areas to accommodate a range of different working styles. Perhaps most striking, however, are the circular, plush pink alcoves that extrude through the façade of the building – acting as focused working spots or meeting niches and evoke the feeling of sitting quietly amidst the treetops.

As a project informed by nature at every turn, IFG were careful to bring sustainability into the design concept wherever possible. For the striking façade, the studio melted down a disused Bionade brewing kettle to create a copper skin for the building, paying homage to the history of the brand while also connecting it to the modern world of work. A concrete, core-activated ceiling was also incorporated to enable more environmentally friendly heating, as well as lamellae ceiling components (made from recycled PET bottles) to help improve internal acoustics. Furnishings also include carpets from IFG’s collaboration with OBJECT CARPET, which are crafted with Econyl yarn from repurposed fishing nets.

As a nod both to biophilia and Bionade’s roots (namely, making organic soft drinks with traditional German beer-brewing methods), the studio also planted a fruit tree orchard to provide a ‘living oasis’ amongst the industrial production halls. Wooden wall panels also help the project feel like a treehouse in earnest, while the ‘Innovation Pavilion’ on the top floor – which encompasses a large meeting room with mobile partitions and non-static furnishings – is lush with green houseplants. An equally verdant roof terrace brings the whole treehouse concept to the fore, as well as offering staff a calm oasis to spend breaks or corporate events with unobstructed views of the surrounding treetops.