Innovation as part of our corporate DNA

As a market and innovation leader, our innovations and new business models have been setting standards for 50 years – for our clients, ourselves, and for the construction and real estate industry.

The Drees & Sommer Innovation Center

The digital transformation taking place in the market means that our clients’ interests and needs are changing more rapidly than ever. That’s why we launched our Innovation Center. In keeping with the motto “Let’s innovate real estate”, we use it to consolidate, prioritize and develop our innovations to achieve efficient goal-oriented digitization of our current business models, and to develop completely new ones. This allows us to continue to offer our clients solutions that are ahead of their time.

 

Complemented by theme-specific hubs, labs and units at our regional offices, the Innovation Center is the core of our innovation network.

Hubs are physical locations at a Drees & Summer regional office. They are dedicated to a specific topic and, as central nodes of our ecosystem, have close relationships with relevant players from the scientific community, startups, and the market. Units and labs are teams of experts working on innovations in a specific area, but that do not (yet) operate in their own dedicated premises.

 

Drees & Sommer Innovation Hub Stuttgart

From the idea to the new business model

We generate ideas for new business models both internally – via an in-house idea platform and formats such as our ideathon – and externally via the Creators ecosystem. We also engage in active trend scouting, identifying current (mega)trends, assessing their industry relevance, and assessing innovation potential.

All business models have one thing in common: the Stage-Gate process. Every innovative concept must pass through this process before we integrate it into our company or one of our projects. The process examines, evaluates and validates trends, startups, employee and client ideas, and clusters.

‘Proptechs accelerate work processes in planning, construction and operation, and make them more efficient. They often encounter an industry consisting of success-saturated construction workers with Hermès neckties, who are not very willing to adopt any change from within their comfort zone. It’s up to us to build a bridge between proptech innovation with a sense of proportion, and a real estate industry that is lethargic when it comes to innovation.’

Norman Meyer Head of Digital Services Drees & Sommer
2019 DS Innovation Hub at Obere Waldplätze 22, Stuttgart
2018 Introduction of the Building Material Scout (BMS)
2018 LCM Digital
2017 Real Estate Usability (UX)
2016 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
2016 Projekt SmartSite: Construction sites are becoming intelligent
2016 Blue City – Integrated Urban Solutions
2016 BIM-Blog
2015 Digital Blue
2012 'the blue way' for the energy transition
2010 Optimization of established properties
2008 Green Building campaign
2007 Drees & Sommer becomes a founding member of the DGNB
2003 Mature Project Communication System (PCMS)
1999 Ahead of its time – Drees & Sommer in Untere Waldplätze 11, Stuttgart, Germany
1992 Eco-management for Potsdamer Platz in Berlin
1986 Introduction of building simulation