Serviced Office Space: An Access Solution for Space as a Service Business

The Design Offices company offers flexible rental offices, coworking, meeting and conference rooms, as well as event spaces in top locations. One of the properties, the Atlas building in Munich, was completely renovated and modernized in 2019. In the course of this renovation, a contemporary electronic locking system from Uhlmann & Zacher (U&Z) was installed in cooperation with Performance Buildings.

Long contract periods and the cost of renovations are a nuisance for many commercial tenants. Design Offices is taking a new approach: In the Space as a Service Business, the premises are already completely set up, and the customer no longer has to take care of organizing his services, such as cleaning or maintenance.

This all-round carefree package is well received: Design Offices is already offering customers fully equipped spaces that can be rented flexibly at over 45 locations in 15 cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt am Main. The company is the market leader in Germany with a total area of around 280,000 square meters. The business area is growing rapidly, especially in large cities, and offers both companies and teams an important opportunity for flexible work.

Confidentiality and Discretion

One of the locations is the Atlas building, a well-known and defining element of the skyline in the east of Munich. The 13-story building has a long history and was completely rebuilt from 2016 to 2019. A six-storey base building and an accessible roof terrace were also added. At this location too, when it comes to coworking space, the trend is moving away from the typical open spaces and towards significantly smaller offices and meeting rooms with more privacy. The reason for this is the increasingly large companies and corporations that are requesting these premises. Customers often want their employees to work in separate areas where confidentiality and discretion are guaranteed. Due to the trend towards home office, some companies are already creating facts and giving up expensive office space. Rooms are then rented for the duration of projects that correspond exactly to the acute need.

When it comes to access control, the requirements in such a property are particularly high. The advantages of an electronic locking system are obvious here: On the one hand, the locking authorizations can be completely changed at any time; on the other hand, there is the option of setting time-controlled access, for example daily within a certain period of time or exclusively on certain days of the week. Furthermore, lost transponders can be blocked immediately and access by unauthorized persons can be quickly prevented. And last but not least, such an electronic system can be retrofitted and expanded at any time, which offers the customer maximum flexibility.

Shapes in Steel

As a competent partner, Performance Buildings AG supervised the project and ensured that the implementation of the electronic locking system ran smoothly. The electronic locking units come from the manufacturer Uhlmann & Zacher. A total of 120 electronic door handles from U&Z were installed. This extremely flexible product range can be installed on almost all commercially available doors without special tools or cabling. The combination with a selection of different handle shapes enables additional customization. Thanks to the minimalist stainless steel design, the electronic door handles blend in unobtrusively with the existing interior.

The electronic locking units could be easily and flexibly integrated into the operating system of Performance Buildings using the Clex public system. Online modules from U&Z with LAN power over Ethernet were also installed in order to obtain a completely wireless online solution. With Mifare Desfire for around 500 issued passive transponders, the planners also opted for the currently leading transponder technology.

Self-Service Bookings

It is a locking system solution from U&Z that works completely online. All electronic door handles are controlled by radio via the online modules, which enables an important workflow in the offices: The customers can book and use rooms very efficiently and dynamically without having to issue authorizations or issue transponders. Access to the offices is controlled exclusively via a smartphone app from Performance Buildings.

Design Offices will soon be introducing a new function that allows customers to access their desired premises with a fully automated and digital process on the Design Offices website. Thanks to the electronic door handles being connected online, all authorized persons can then enter their workplace or meeting room completely independently during booking times.
The successful cooperation between Design Offices, Performance Buildings and Uhlmann & Zacher will be continued. More locking units will be installed in the Atlas building in the near future as the electronic system can be flexibly enlarged. In addition to electronic door handles, electronic locking cylinders from U&Z will then also be installed in the building.