How do we want to live and work tomorrow? And how do we want to use the living and working space available to us more flexibly and efficiently? Häfele’s new showroom in Stuttgart’s Römerkastell provides answers. In the all-black “ideas workshop”, furniture, light, space and connectivity are rethought, planned and implemented together with customers.

Since mid-October, Häfele has been welcoming planners, creative professionals, the skilled trades, industry partners and real estate investors and operators to its new showroom in the north of Baden-Württemberg’s state capital. Above all, the internationally active specialist for furniture and construction fittings, electronic locking systems and LED lighting solutions wants to discuss and develop new hotel and living space concepts, such as micro-living apartments, with its guests in the black box. The topic of light and how it can be used to create and change room atmospheres will play an important role in the black box.

Situated high above the Stuttgart district of Bad Cannstatt, the Häfele Blackbox is located in Stuttgart’s Römerkastell. The former barracks, whose area was already used by the Romans as a “castellum”, has developed into an significant creative and media area in Stuttgart over the last 10 years.

Space for dialogue and interaction

The black box serves as a flexible exhibition space with a changeable workshop character, as a stage for the successful Häfele Academy and as a creative venue for events for up to 100 people. Häfele brought the Stuttgart-based creative agency Jangled Nerves on board to use the first floor space. With them, a spatial concept was developed that stages Häfele, its product ranges and its solutions in a special way. “The Blackbox is a flexible and highly functional space and functions like a theater stage of possibilities,” Prof. Thomas Hundt, co-founder and managing director of Jangled Nerves explains. “The showroom is primarily intended as a meeting place, for dialogue with customers,” Thomas Hundt continues. “With a floor-to-ceiling LED wall, we also extend the physical space into the digital, offering inspiring opportunities for interaction with visitors.”

The image of a theater with various stages is always present in the Blackbox. Floor, ceiling, walls – everything is kept in black, just like in the theater, and is staged with a well-thought-out lighting concept.

Kitchen, micro-living and hospitality in focus

At the start of the Blackbox, Häfele will be focusing on three topics – so-called stages: the modern, multifunctional kitchen, the topic of micro-living apartments and the hotel room of the future. Häfele is currently pushing the latter in particular. “The hospitality industry in its entire spectrum is particularly close to our hearts. This is because this industry is extremely affected by the shortage of skilled workers, an explosion in costs, and the simultaneous trend toward investments that meet sustainability standards and ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) criteria. Häfele’s services make an important contribution to optimizing the value and utility of spaces and technologically streamlining processes in day-to-day operations,” emphasizes Sibylle Thierer, Häfele corporate director. “How can a room be used multiple times? How can it be easily converted? How can it be emotionalized with good room and furniture lighting for different atmospheres? How do I organize individualized offers in a guest- and operator-friendly way? We want to discuss and answer these questions in the Blackbox,” Sibylle Thierer continues.

To strengthen the hospitality sector, Häfele has set up a new department that has moved into its offices in the Römerkastell in Stuttgart, directly above the showroom. Here, industry experts take care of hospitality projects, from conception and execution to services during ongoing operation. The new Häfele Hospitality Solutions department is headed by Dr. Thomas Leib and Thomas Bosse, both experienced developers and planners of hospitality projects. They, too, are pleased about “their” new showroom in Stuttgart. Dr. Thomas Leib says: “The Blackbox is a future laboratory for the most diverse uses of space in the field of commercial living. Häfele is becoming a trendsetter in this segment with the Blackbox and the new business unit.”

Light experience Blackbox

The Blackbox was also designed by Häfele to make it possible for visitors to experience the diverse possibilities of room and furniture lighting. Together with Häfele subsidiary Nimbus, around 150 light points or light lines were installed in the Blackbox – and each individual luminaire can be controlled individually, can be dimmed and the light color can be changed flexibly and according to use. This allows a wide variety of lighting scenarios to be programmed on site via the new Häfele Connect wireless technology and their effects to be tested. In addition, the black box clearly demonstrates how lighting control can work together with other systems, such as access control systems. A lighting laboratory will also be set up in the black box for discussions and planning meetings with lighting professionals. Those interested in lighting design will receive on-site support from the development engineers and lighting designers from Nimbus and Häfele, who also have their offices in the Römerkastell. “

“The Blackbox impressively shows the interplay of light, space and furniture”, Sibylle Thierer says. “It is through the light that a room first becomes emotionally charged. The Blackbox is a creative and technology workshop for all our customers: Craftsmen, planners, industry partners, investors and operators. We look forward to creative exchange with them in the Blackbox!”. For more information about the Häfele Blackbox and to book appointments to visit, visit the website at www.haefele.de/blackbox.