Creating Catalytic Environments Organizations are exploring effective methods of knowledge creation and innovation. Interaction between individuals and groups with knowledge and creativity is key. Enterprises therefore work to attract the best people and to stimulate creative activity. What role do offices play in this? Transparent Office Encourages Meetings To provide a place for knowledge workers of widely varying backgrounds to create new knowledge through lively communication, Geneva-based biopharmaceuticals major Merck Serono built a headquarters office designed to be the physical epitome of transparency and openness. Glass is used wherever practically possible, in everything from the parapets along walkway-bridges to the canopy above the courtyard, not to mention the exterior walls. Its spaces embody ideas to encourage people to link up, mix, communicate, and collaborate. Merck Serono / Geneva, Switzerland Simple, Modular Design Encourages Communication Lufthansa was incredibly ambitious with the requirements for its new headquarters project. The building is a landmark that symbolizes Lufthansa's corporate identity, maximizes comfort for its employees, and minimizes energy consumption to help the company fulfi ll its corporate social responsibility, yet leaves scope for future expansion. Attention to detail in the design and cutting-edge technological collaboration resulted in an building that satisfi ed all criteria. The Lufthansa Aviation Center has typically German qualities combining functionality and design excellence. Lufthansa Aviation Center / Frankfurt am Main, Germany Communication on the Street   Passing through the security gate, straight ahead is a "staircase" of terraces paved with distinctively reddish-brown sandstone, with a food court at the far end on the sixth-level apex. On the terraces, casually dressed people sit at tables holding meetings, or just stand and chat. Welcome to the central atrium --"the Street"-- of BBC Scotland's new head-quarters! The company made relocation to the open-plan office symbolized by this space an opportunity to transform itself into a flexible organization by bringing together people who had been previously isolated in their respective sections. BBC Scotland / Glasgow, UK 21st Century "News Factory" Open to the Street First printed in 1851, the New York Times is a newspaper that people immediately identify with the U.S. The New York Times Company, its publisher, finished a new headquarters near Times Square in 2007 that embodies the company's mission of transparency to readers and providing news in an open society. The New York Times Building / New York City, USA