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Brief: Make a Canteen - Response: Build a Dialogue.
When a major investment group asked for a “canteen” on their Siemensdam campus, there was no brief—just a shell, a budget, and full trust. But full freedom is its own trap. The real challenge was to invent a story the space could live inside.
Located in a former Siemens factory, the site straddled two worlds: the raw industrial legacy of 1920s Berlin, and the digital sterility of today’s tech offices. I made that division the concept itself.
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The Cut: Past Below, Future Above
I split the space—literally—at eye level.
Above the line: a textured collage of colored surfaces, red steel, technical installations, and architectural memory. Below it: pure calm. Clean materials. Raw textures. Honest presence. The ceiling became history. The floor became life.
The “cut” wasn’t decoration—it was structure. An act of spatial editing. The design invites people to gather in the neutral base, while the layered ceiling reminds them where they are.
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Design Tactics
• Narrative Division: History above, function below—spatial storytelling through contrast
• Industrial Preservation: Exposed concrete columns, stripped plaster, visible steel
• Material Collage: Wood, steel, concrete, fabric—each material left honest and legible
• Social Zoning: Fast dining at high tables; slow interaction at a central curtained table; open bench seating for daily use
• Sculptural Lighting: Hidden spotlights + globe lamps + neon installation above the communal table
The room feels layered but quiet. Busy in material, calm in feeling. It shifts with the crowd. Empty, it feels like a stage. Full, it becomes a warm social engine.
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The Human Scale
One of the construction workers—tasked with sandblasting the concrete columns—asked why we were doing it. Not out of complaint, but out of curiosity. I took him through the whole concept. He asked to bring his wife on site to see what he was part of.
That moment is the project.
This isn’t a space for a client. It’s for people. And they know when something was made with intention.
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“If you can do everything, what do you choose?
Here, I chose the line.
Above: memory. Below: presence.”
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PHOTOS - YVES SUCKSDORF