A preview of the new Munich Learning and Innovation Centre

Insightful Environments became one of the first organisations to have a look around the new Steelcase Learning and Innovation Centre (LINC) in Munich last week. The new centre, being built right in the centre of Munich doesn't open until next summer, but IE was given a preview tour of the impressive campus.

According to Steelcase, the finished LINC will be designed to enhance the way it collaborates, learns and leads. In this manner they will be able to expedite innovation, increase performance and provide a great experience that will inspire influencers and customers.

The entire campus including the new customer experience centre will showcase Steelcase's design principles for creating workplaces that act as a catalyst for learning and innovation:

• Design spaces to consider the physical, cognitive and emotional wellbeing of people
• Create an ecosystem of interconnected zones where people can have choice and control over where and how they work. These zones will be destinations designed to augment human interactions by allowing people to connect and collaborate - both formally and informally.

The LINC will be the new European headquarters for Steelcase and will bring together product development, customer experience, sales and support teams from different locations around Europe.

We are looking forward to seeing the finished version next summer!

"Munich will be a place to centre ourselves. Within the Learning + Innovation Centre. we will use the power of face-to face interaction to build trust that fuels collaboration and innovation. People will come to Munich and learn from us about how to create an engine for innovation and a culture that supports learning, and to understand the role that leaders play in that process."

Jim Keane - President and CEO, Steelcase

The model of the new LINC campus in Munich

When finished the new customer experience centre will be a living example of Steelcase's design philosophy for the future of workplaces.

The new LINC contains an interesting feature - one of the largest doors in Europe!