Workspace furnishing for the Group Headquarter Building by Juan Navarro Baldeweg on Novartis Campus in Basel is based on three different types. They were developed by Nissen Wentzlaff and Vitra in coordination with Novartis. The idea was to do away with the usual face-to-face seating arrangement and create individual workspaces offering as much independence and intimacy as possible, but without isolating the employees.

Following a multi-phase development process with different producers, a modified furniture system based on the product Level 34 by Werner Aisslinger was chosen: A modular system of storage furniture units rest on a bench 20cm above floor level. The tabletops are laid on, making the system look lighter and providing unbroken space below at floor level. Two workplaces – Typ 2-er AP – are situated offset next to each other. Access to two workplaces is provided by an interspace; the employees, however, do not sit next to each other facing the same direction, but back-to-back and slightly offset. Each workplace has a 115cm high storage furniture piece at the front and at the back. On both sides there are 60cm high benches containing additional shelves and drawers on which the tabletop rests unattached. The niche resulting from this layout shelters the single workplace and creates a higher degree of individuality in the Multispace Office. The employee can control the degree of workplace privacy by reverting to the use of individually adjustable, tabletop absorber elements.

Single workspaces – Typ 1-er AP – rely on the same room depth. At the front they join on to a continuous storage furniture unit, sideways on to a somewhat lower bench. The ensemble is complemented by round sitting and a bar table. The building’s corners are furnished with four workplaces grouped in the form of a windmill – Typ 4-er AP. They feature the same elements as the other workplace types, but in a different configuration.