Dubai, UAE · Corporate headquarters · 2024 · FACE Architecture + Design

Henkel HQ

Workplace strategy, zoning and layouts across two floors and 4,280 m², from Henkel's values to a plan of open, enclosed and shared settings around a double-height court.

Location: Dubai, UAE
Year: 2024
Sector: Commercial
Scope: Workplace strategy, zoning and layout concept

My contribution

Responsibility: Workplace strategy, zoning and layout concept

Key contributions

Translated Henkel's values into workplace drivers and smart-work principles
Developed the activity-based space strategy and the adjacency diagrams
Zoned both floors, sizing each space against area and employee capacity
Prepared the ground and first floor layouts and zoning axonometrics

The project

The brief started from Henkel's own values: a 145-year company committed to sustainability, innovation and the wellbeing of a diverse team. We turned them into four drivers for the workplace: a place people want to belong to, one that supports innovation, one that looks after their wellbeing, and one that uses less energy, water and material.

The strategy is activity-based working. Rather than a fixed desk for everyone, the floors offer a range of settings: open workstations along the façade with daylight and views, enclosed focus rooms and phone booths for concentration, open collaborative desks and informal meeting areas, closed project rooms for confidential work, and community spaces for everything in between.

The ground floor, 2,300 m², holds what is shared. An entrance lounge and guest café lead into a double-height community court, with formal meeting rooms, a 630 m² lab and a health and wellness centre around it. The first floor, 1,980 m², is the working floor for 150 people, each zone sized against its headcount around a central community area, kitchen and balance room. Planting runs through both floors.

Henkel HQ — First floor: open workstations along the façade, with focus rooms, project rooms, quiet rooms and flexible offices gathered into coloured blocks around the community area. — First floor: open workstations along the façade, with focus rooms, project rooms, quiet rooms and flexible offices gathered into coloured blocks around the community area.

First floor: open workstations along the façade, with focus rooms, project rooms, quiet rooms and flexible offices gathered into coloured blocks around the community area.

Henkel HQ — Adjacencies: arrival and the community court anchor the ground floor; upstairs the community area links the individual, collaborative and enclosed work settings. — Adjacencies: arrival and the community court anchor the ground floor; upstairs the community area links the individual, collaborative and enclosed work settings.

Henkel HQ — Activity-based working: open and enclosed settings for individual, collaborative and community work, sized from how people actually spend their day. — Activity-based working: open and enclosed settings for individual, collaborative and community work, sized from how people actually spend their day.

Henkel HQ — Four drivers from Henkel's values: a place of belonging, business innovation, employee wellbeing and a smaller environmental footprint. — Four drivers from Henkel's values: a place of belonging, business innovation, employee wellbeing and a smaller environmental footprint.

Four drivers from Henkel's values: a place of belonging, business innovation, employee wellbeing and a smaller environmental footprint.

“Not a desk for everyone, but the right setting for each kind of work.”

Henkel HQ — The smart-work principles: flexible and ergonomic workstations, daylight and views, acoustic privacy, biophilia and a consistent corporate identity. — The smart-work principles: flexible and ergonomic workstations, daylight and views, acoustic privacy, biophilia and a consistent corporate identity.

Process

From the zoning schedule to furnished layouts, floor by floor.

Zoning

The programme placed floor by floor, each zone sized against its headcount: 2,300 m² on the ground floor and 1,980 m² above.

Ground floor zoning — lab 630 m², entrance lounge 400 m², community court 350 m², health and wellness 330 m², formal meetings 170 m².
First floor zoning — 500 m² of standard workstations, a 370 m² community area, 200 m² of collaborative desks, and quiet, focus and project rooms.

Layout

The zones resolved into furnished layouts, from reception and the wellness centre to touch-down desks, phone booths and the lunch area.

Ground floor layout — reception and guest café at the entrance, the wellness centre and changing rooms, formal meeting rooms and the lab.
First floor layout — workstation banks along the façade, quiet room and flexible offices, project rooms, informal meeting space, kitchen and balance room.

Colophon

Location: Dubai, UAE
Year: 2024
Sector: Commercial
Typology: Corporate headquarters
Scope: Workplace strategy, zoning and layout concept
Client: Henkel
Size: ≈ 4,280 m² — ground floor 2,300 m², first floor 1,980 m²
Capacity: 150 employees