- Henning
- Larsen
The head office of Microsoft Denmark is designed to meet the specific needs of the individual employee from day to day. This means that no sales personnel have fixed workstations. When they get to work in the morning, they pick a workstation which matches their tasks for the day, whether customer meetings, video conferences, or administrative work. Conversely, the workspaces of the development team are planned to support project-oriented work of varying scope and duration. One half of the central atrium is designed to encourage informal meetings across the organization. The other half gathers Microsoft's external activities and is open to visitors. With its central location in a vibrant business and campus environment, Microsoft brings together partners, researchers, and students from the neighboring Technical University of Denmark.
Microsoft's philosophy and working methods, described in 2005 by founder Bill Gates under the title "The New World of Work", have formed the foundation for the design of the headquarters. The building is developed to house both internal and external collaboration processes and to support the needs of employees, customers, and guests.
This is expressed in a number of activity-based workrooms, varying in size from small "telephone booths" to medium-sized meeting rooms and auditoriums. Further, each floor offers a social hub, featuring a kitchen, seating furniture, Xbox and table soccer, to stimulate community, social interaction, and knowledge sharing across departments.
"Microsoft has a department, Microsoft Workplace Advantage, which works on developing the workplace of the future. Representatives from this department will come to Denmark to study the new headquarters. The Lyngby premises will serve as inspiration for the rest of Microsoft." - Charlotte Mark, Managing Director Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen
Microsoft’s Denmark Headquarters explore a new model in collaborative work. Partially inspired by a 2005 address by Bill Gates, the headquarters create space for dialogue between colleagues, guests and students; a modern interpretation of the shared workplace
In a 2005 memo titled The New World of Work, Microsoft Founder and CEO Bill Gates wrote, “Over the next decade, shared workplaces will become far more robust.” Ten years later, the doors opened to Gates’ proof of concept. Our headquarters for Microsoft Denmark is a dedicated exploration of the collaborative office – Instead of fixed desks, many employees select the workspace that suits the day’s tasks, cycling between conference rooms, communal tables or clustered desks.
Internal glass walls enhance visual dialogue within the workplace, contributing to a stronger sense of activity and collaboration between colleagues. The ground floor atrium functions as a common space between Microsoft employees, guests, and students from the neighboring Technical University of Denmark campus. In this way, the Microsoft Headquarters become a local hotspot for knowledge sharing, extending the experiment in collaborative working to the greater community.