USER CENTRIC Solutions

We connect people, spaces, and technologies.

“How do we create future-ready work, living, learning, and experience environments?”

In short: by thinking about people, spaces, and technologies together—and by focusing from the very beginning on how these environments will ultimately be used and operated. We guide our clients through the entire process, from strategy to real-world implementation.

We help organizations address the following challenges

Strategic Value: The benefits of modern workplaces, learning environments, and customer spaces are often not always easy to quantify. We help demonstrate how your investment supports business strategy, improves organizational performance, strengthen competitiveness, and enhances the experience for employees, customers, and other users.
Profitability and ROI: Measuring the success of modern work environments can be complex. We develop business cases, calculate return on investment (ROI) and lifecycle costs, establish KPIs, governance models, and clear accountability to ensure your investment delivers long-term value.
Space Planning and Investment: Organizations are under increasing pressure to reduce costs while creating flexible, scalable real estate portfolios. We develop space strategies and concepts that maximize efficiency and remain financially sustainable throughout the entire lifecycle.
Organizational Change and Effectiveness: Modern, hybrid work, learning, and customer environments have a proven to have a positive impact on collaboration, organizational culture, and brand perception. However, many organizations struggle to manage the change required to realize these benefits. We design and lead change management programs that build engagement, encourage adoption, and inspire collaborations because successful transformation depends on as much people as it does data.
Operations and Sustainability: Rising occupancy costs, inefficient energy use, and inconsistent service delivery can limit organizational performance. We help create models that are efficient, sustainable, and centered on the needs of users.
Technology and Digitalization: Organizations are under pressure to embrace digital platforms and innovations that will remain relevant in the future. At the same time, they must seamlessly integrate audiovisual systems, IT infrastructure, workplace technologies, AI, and data platforms into existing environments in ways that are secure, scalable, and user-friendly. We help organizations navigate this complexity and implement integrated solutions that support long-term success.

At its core, User Centric Solutions is our approach to consulting, planning, and implementating high performing work, living, and learning environments with people and operations at the center.

Our experts address all of these challenges with integrated solutions. Because anyone aiming to transform physical and digital spaces will not get far with isolated planning.

Instead, we combine expertise in organizational consulting, architecture, digitalization and technology consulting, project management, sustainability, and change management.

Workplace

Create a flexible, modular, and hybrid system with us that equally enhances productivity, collaboration, and well-being.

Future-ready work environments are more than offices. They are tools for productivity, collaboration, and operational excellence.

Talent magnet: Work environments that create identity and foster acceptance through user experience
Space efficiency: Flexible, scalable concepts for activity-based working with optimized utilization and sustainable cost-efficiency
Hybrid collaboration: High-performance technological infrastructure for seamless, accessible hybrid collaboration
Adoption and implementation: Integrated change management to ensure productive use of the new work environment from day one

We think and act holistically and guide you from start to finish: from developing your workplace strategy through concept design, planning, and implementation to introduction, scaling, roll-out, and operations.

Education

Together, we create adaptive and inspiring environments where people can learn, collaborate, and sustainably develop their skills in hybrid settings.

Modern teaching and learning environments must make knowledge more accessible and simplify teaching—on-site and hybrid.

Contemporary learning: Environments that support educators and learners while enabling innovative teaching and learning formats
Hybrid excellence: Interactive presentation, communication, and collaboration technologies for in-person and remote participants in one space
Scalability: Standardized, cost-efficient concepts for sustainable operations and portfolio-wide roll-outs
Enablement and adoption: Integrated change management with targeted training for staff and educators

We develop solutions for hybrid education in modern learning environments—advising you on both strategic alignment and the implementation of innovative teaching formats to ensure long-term, cost-effective operations.

Brand Spaces

Together, we develop consistent, emotionally engaging physical-digital (“phygital”) touchpoints. This creates personal relevance, strengthens brand identity, and enables a seamless customer journey.

Customer and brand loyalty emerge where phygital spaces become measurable brand experiences.

Brand experience: Brand and retail formats that provide orientation, build trust, and support purchasing decisions
Customer journey: Seamless experiences through the integration of physical and digital touchpoints
Technological staging: Innovative technologies for impactful spatial presentation of brands and products
Scalability: Cross-location store concepts and standardized approaches for efficient roll-outs
Operational efficiency: Efficient organization of roll-out and operations

We develop holistic concepts for brand and retail spaces—from planning and implementation to roll-out and operations.

SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

With us, you create immersive, emotional experience spaces that increase fan engagement, strengthen your brand, and enable seamless live and digital experiences.

Modern sports and entertainment environments are far more than venues - they are platforms for emotion, interaction, and identification. Whether live on-site, hybrid, or digital, they connect visitor experience, operations, and monetization into one integrated system.

Fan experience: Holistically designed environments that create proximity, emotion, and identification—before, during, and after events
Immersive staging: Audiovisual and digital technologies for impactful storytelling and presentation of games, shows, and brands
Seamless touchpoints: End-to-end visitor and user experiences through intelligent integration of physical, digital, and mobile touchpoints
Operational and revenue performance: User- and operations-focused concepts for efficient management of operations, safety, hospitality, and monetization
Scalability and future readiness: Standardized, maintainable, and scalable solutions for multifunctional use, seasonal formats, and roll-outs

We support you holistically—from strategic experience and usage definition through concept, planning, and implementation to commissioning, ongoing operations, and continuous development.

HOTEL AND HOSPITALITY

Create personal, seamless, and multisensory experiences that enhance comfort, efficiency, and emotional guest connection at every touchpoint.

True guest experience emerges when comfort, flexibility, and experiential quality are combined with efficient operations—whether in modern hotels, co-working spaces, or event venues.

Guest experience: Comfortable, flexible hospitality and event spaces with distinctive character
Market positioning: From market strategy through concept and planning to roll-out and operations
Digital guest experience: Intelligent information and wayfinding systems, as well as in-room entertainment for greater comfort and security
Multi-format performance: Technology and usage concepts for events, meetings, conferences, and changing formats
Investment security: Sustainable operational concepts for long-term performance and cost-efficiency

We guide you through your entire project—from market positioning to concept, planning, implementation, roll-out, and operations.

COMMAND AND CONTROL

We create high-performance, secure, and intuitive work environments that enable situational decision-making, real-time transparency, and efficient collaboration in critical scenarios.

Modern control rooms, operations centers, and situation centers are the nerve center of organizational capability. They integrate information, technologies, and people into a unified decision and response system—meeting the highest standards of availability, security, and ergonomics around the clock.

Situational awareness: Intelligent visualization and information concepts for a shared, reliable real-time operational picture
Human-machine interaction: Ergonomic, user-centered workstations for sustained high performance in critical operations
Technological resilience: Highly available, secure, and scalable AV, IT, and control room technologies for mission-critical applications
Interdisciplinary collaboration: Spaces and systems that seamlessly connect leadership, analysis, decision-making, and operations—locally, hybrid, and across organizations
Operations and future readiness: Standardized, maintainable concepts with clear strategies for operation, updates, and scalability across the entire lifecycle

We support you holistically throughout your entire project—from strategic needs and requirements analysis through concept, planning, and realization to commissioning, training, operational organization, and continuous development of your command and control environment.

Our Approach

We take an integrated, strategic, and holistic approach partnering with clients from strategy development through implementation and ongoing operations.

People, places, and technology are inseparable and should never be considered in isolation. We take a comprehensive view that integrates people, organizations, environments, digital transformation, and technology to create effective, scalable, and economically sustainable solutions. The result is high-performing environments that deliver exceptional user experiences while supporting long-term business objectives.

Your Added Value

Real Estate and Space Strategy
We provide a clear foundation for decision-making on new construction, modernization, relocations, or portfolio rollouts. Our strategic guidance enables clients to plan with confidence, accelerate decision-making, and optimize investment.
Interior Architecture and Brand Experience
We translate user, customer, and operational requirements into environments that are both functional and inspiring, creating efficient workflows while reinforcing brand identity.
Technology and Digitalization
We integrate modern audiovisual and IT solutions with smart building technologies and data-driven planning to enable better decision making, optimize operations, and create future-ready infrastructure.
Change Management
We support organizational transformation at every stage with clear communication and structured engagement. By involving stakeholders throughout the process, we build understanding, encourage adoption, and help ensure lasting change.
Sustainability and Economic Performance
We align environmental and business objectives across the entire lifecycle to improve sustainability, reduce operating costs, and maximize long-term value.
User Project Management
We manage the entire user-side project lifecycle, from requirements definition and coordination with design and construction teams to change management, relocation, commissioning and operational readiness. This reduces complexity for stakeholders and helps ensure successful project delivery.

Press 14/04/2025

Leading the Way in ESG: Grimma’s Industrial and Business Park Provides Economic Boost to Eastern Germany

The new industrial and business park in Grimma is being built in line with the ESG principles of the Logix guidelines. Drees & Sommer assists and supports Hines in the realization of the project. Platinum certification by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) will be applied for. The park is already taking shape on an area covering 28 hectares. © Hines Immobilien GmbH

[Translate to English:] © Hines Immobilien GmbH

Grimma (district of Leipzig), Germany, April 14, 2025. In the heart of the Leipzig metropolitan area, a strategically important business park is under construction. The park covers an area of almost 28 hectares, offers 114,000 square meters of rental space, three modern halls and a great number of jobs. For large companies, it is an attractive base for expansion and innovation. Owing to its situation in close proximity to well-known conglomerates – such as BMW, Porsche and Amazon – the park is stimulating economic growth in eastern Germany. The project is being realized by Hines, a leading global real estate investment manager. In this project, Hines has availed itself of the expertise and know-how of Stuttgart-based Drees & Sommer. The company specializes in the field of construction, property and infrastructure consulting. The park will be developed in compliance with sustainable building criteria as defined in the guidelines for sustainable logistics real estate (Leitfaden für Logistikimmobilien – Logix[i]) and will obtain a Platinum certification from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). The development will also comply with the requirements of the EU Taxonomy in relation to new buildings.

Almost 38 percent of global carbon emissions are attributable to the construction sector, a fact which highlights the urgent necessity to establish sustainable practices in the construction industry[ii]. Hines Senior Director Dominik Weis commented: “The new industrial and business park represents an important milestone in the development of sustainable logistics solutions in eastern Germany. However, not only does the building and construction sector have a responsibility to use environmentally-friendly materials and technologies, we also have to assume social responsibility by creating safe working conditions and fostering sustainable communities.” A special feature of the project: for the first time, Hines and Drees & Sommer will work in compliance with the Logix guidelines for ESG standards for sustainable logistics real estate. They are pioneers in this field.

Efficient Construction Site Coordination by Drees & Sommer

Pascal Metschel is Senior Project Head at Drees & Sommer and a member of the Logix Advisory Board. Together with his team of specialists, he assists and supports Hines in the development of the park. The range of services provided includes: organization of the acquisition-related technical due diligence; awarding of the construction work; project management; supervision of the general contractor during the construction phase. In addition, within the frame of the ESG controls work, the experts of Drees & Sommer help to assess to what extent companies comply with the environmental and social aspects of the ESG provisions.

“By linking the different service and performance ranges, we can ensure that all steps in the project are completed efficiently and on schedule. Among other things, this is possible because we work with building information modeling (BIM),” Pascal Metschel added. This method enables a project to be digitally modeled and planned. The expert explained: “What we speak about here is a multi-dimensional digital twin of the projected building. The precise measures, costs and also the lifetime of the materials used are reliably reflected.” In this way, we ensure that resources are really used efficiently and potential sources of error are detected at an early stage.

Target: Platinum Certification by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)

Every detail of the entire project is designed with sustainability in mind. Dominik Weis pointed out: “Our target is Platinum Certification by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)“ A large number of sustainability measures are being taken in order to reach this objective. Among them is the addition of photovoltaic systems to the roofs of all the units – an area of around 100,000 square meters. “This results in reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and the energy needed is covered by renewable energies,” Dominik Weis added. Above this a planted noise barrier will wind along the south side of the building, promoting biodiversity on the site. The sustainability measures for the site will be complemented by façade greening and park-like grounds with sports facilities and a pond. A further item of central importance on the sustainability agenda is to encourage e-mobility. This is being implemented by the integration of charging points for electric vehicles, which will support travel to and from work as well as logistics. The mobility plan also includes parking lots for bikes.

An Environment Where Employees Feel Comfortable

In addition to the intelligent integration of sustainability measures, new working environments that meet the needs of the staff will be created at the site. For Dominik , one thing is definite: “Employees should feel comfortable here and enjoy coming to work. To achieve this goal, we are providing a range of facilities.” For example, there are various types of outdoor areas: sports fields will offer staff members the opportunity to keep active and vary their everyday working lives. There will also be basketball courts and table tennis tables, as well as recreational spaces in green areas, inviting people to linger and relax. Another highlight are the roof terraces where outdoor meetings will take place and employees can spend their breaks.

“The Logix guidelines will be closely observed. This ensures a responsible use of resources and promotes a modern work environment where the workers’ wellbeing will be constantly fostered,” Marcel Weis sums up.

[i]Download: ESG in logistics real estate – guidelines and recommendations (in German)

[ii] Klimawandel: 38 Prozent der CO2-Emissionen stammen aus dem Gebäudesektor - DER SPIEGEL magazine
(in German, ‘Climate change: 38 percent of the CO2 emissions come from the construction sector’)