A Center with a German Touch

HOW THE GERMAN CENTER SETS STANDARDS

With the German Center in Taicang, Christian Sommer was able to repeat what he had already achieved 15 years earlier with the German Center Shanghai. As CEO and Chairman, he developed modern office space and at the same time a social meeting place for his German and European tenants, setting standards in the city in terms of quality, functionality, and relevance. Daniel Heusser, head of the architecture and project management firm VIRTUARCH, accompanied the German Center and spoke with Christian Sommer.

Daniel

Why did you decide to open a German Center in Taicang?

Christian

We wanted to have a Sino-German or Sino-European foothold in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 city in Jiangsu province, in addition to the metropolises of Shanghai and Beijing. Taicang offered a great package, including the commitment and reliability of the authorities. The German and European industry has a strong presence in Taicang. But at the same time, we had noticed a shortage in the service sector. I am talking about lawyers, tax consultants, industrial service providers, IT companies, etc. We knew that from our surveys. For this group, we offer a modern working environment. But we also offer production companies a high-quality environment for seminars, training courses, and other events. So, the German Center is a real meeting place. The German Chamber of Commerce is also active here with numerous events, such as working group meetings. Exactly such a center was missing in Taicang. We are filling this gap.

“We live the platform idea. That makes us special”

Daniel

The German Centre positions itself as a place of exchange. You use your experiences from the other German Centres in Taicang and you continue improving. This also includes the Incubation Centre of the city of Taicang, a coworking space for German small and medium-sized companies located in the German Centre in Shanghai.

Christian

Right. Office buildings are a dime a dozen. What sets us apart, in addition to the high quality, is our lived platform concept. By this I mean the following: In Germany, companies are larger than their branches in China. Especially in the early years of doing business in China, usually only a few workplaces are needed. At the German Centre, companies can get these spaces with access to our complete service area and infrastructure. They will find an environment similar to that of a large company. The exchange with other tenants is an inseparable part of this platform concept. A real community is formed throughout the building. People meet, they help each other, and business relationships are formed. We encourage this with our events. One example: “Feuerzangenbowle” is one of our successful traditional events that we brought from Shanghai to Taicang. Every year in the run-up to Christmas, more than 100 people get together to watch a movie and enjoy a real “Feuerzangenbowle”. Basically, we celebrate Chinese and German festivals. For this, you need rooms with an atmosphere that also allows for emotional moods. We know from many years of experience how well that works.

Daniel

This concept was implemented in a room program. The design of the German Center Taicang was aligned so that it could fulfill the requirements for all these functions perfectly: We have the common areas with the lobby and the bakery with café, the event rooms, the workplaces in the individually rented office spaces. And finally, the management of the German Center, which takes care of the services offered, the organization of the events and the well-being of the tenants. The perfect design and implementation of all these requirements was crucial to the success of the project.

 

“Quality is our top priority. At all levels”

Daniel

You mentioned the topic of quality. What requirements do you place on yourself and your partners?

Christian

Quality plays a role for us in many fields: building materials, ambiance, and service. That was also the case 15 years ago when the German Center was built in Shanghai. We were ahead of the times then, and now in Taicang, we are pioneers again. We knew that you, Daniel, and your team are not only active in Shanghai, but also in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The cost-benefit ratio is different in big cities than in small cities, so you always find a very good mix with your team of VIRTUARCH. In Taicang, we have reached a new level of quality thanks to you and your team.

Daniel

Thank you. It gives me great pleasure that we can work in such different environments and with a wide range of requirements and always find the best possible solution for our customers’ projects. Of course, a lot has happened in the 15 years since the German Center opened in Pudong. Realistically, we have to say that not only can we build better quality at a reasonable cost, but construction costs have risen, as have the cost of living and wages. The German Center in Taicang is of better quality, but it also has higher costs. It is interesting that the price-performance ratio has improved significantly.

Christian

That is exactly my point. Our aspiration as a German Center is to be better than those who build simple office buildings. We have succeeded in doing that again in Taicang. We are setting ourselves apart, I would think. A small example: In the toilet and hygiene area, we rely on the high quality and excellent design of German suppliers. We spared no expense and imported several elements from Germany. The feedback from tenants is correspondingly positive. We are even approached about it from time to time.

We also attach great importance to the feel-good factor. As you know, we have a wide range of services in Shanghai: we have apartments, offices, large conference rooms, underground garages. And we have a relatively large garden area, which we don’t have in Taicang. That’s exactly why it was so important for us to bring the “green factor” into the building. We must not forget that people spend 8 to 10 hours a day here and want to work in a good atmosphere. That’s why we fought so hard for every inch of ceiling height, for example. This is depressingly low in many buildings because at the end of the construction process, ventilation is just put under the pipes for sprinklers and electricity, resulting in a loss of clear height of the spaces. That’s not what we wanted. I remember it well: we met with everyone on a Saturday afternoon and didn’t part ways until we found a solution that gave us a comfortable ceiling height. I insisted. The result is good, the ceilings are a comfortable height. We are happy every day when we come in.

Daniel

It’s true, there are a lot of unique selling points in the German Center. The quality, the atmosphere, the café with the bakery, the green oasis (green wall). The management is centrally located with an office in the building, which creates a certain identity.

Christian

Yes, that is correct. You mentioned another point that I also consider a quality feature: As a management team, we are just as much in the middle of the action in Taicang as we are in Shanghai. In many cases, you rent an office, the owner is not there anyway, and the representative is often gone as well. In the end, you are left alone with facility management. At the German Center, those responsible are approachable and physically available.

“Sustainability is our claim. Our tenants expect the same from us.”

Daniel

One of your specifications was the DGNB certificate (the sustainability certificate of the German Sustainable Building Council), i.e., the German environmental certification for the German Center’s space. You set the bar very high in Taicang. From my point of view, you also have a kind of unique selling point, because there are not so many buildings with the same standard. We certainly had to do quite a bit of coordination and organization in the run-up, but the certification makes sense; it shows your quality standards in terms of sustainability.

Christian

Exactly. For BayernLB as a shareholder in the German Center, the DGNB certificate for Taicang in Gold was a conditio sine qua non, a necessary condition for an investment. As the bank relies on environmental certificates and acts sustainably in Germany, it cannot be any different abroad, in this case in China. This point was also very important for our tenants and therefore also relevant for the decision from this perspective. For example, one tenant asked us what kind of coolant we use in the air conditioning system. That’s a legitimate question; after all, environmentally harmful materials were often used in the past. Speaking of air conditioning, we have fresh air supply on our floors, which is standard in Shanghai but not in Taicang. It costs us quite a bit of money, but it was worth it to our tenants. We also have a good solution for lighting: we can switch from the window to the inside, unlike series switching, we can turn on the light inside while it stays off in the window area. This is energy-saving.

Daniel

Finally: When you think about the German Centre in Taicang: What was particularly important to you back then, what are you proud of today?

Christian

It was particularly important to me to plan and realize a building with a German, an international touch. I knew even then that this would make us unique. And we have succeeded. Today, we have a building in Taicang with a touch of nature inside, which is built sustainably and has a great atmosphere. People like it here. I am proud of that.

Daniel

From my perspective as an architect, I agree. The German Center has managed to be perceived as a meeting place in Taicang. It’s not just a place to work, it’s a place where the community meets. The building is bright and friendly, with elegant architecture. You can see and feel the quality. Getting there was a long journey with a lot of work for all of us, but it was worth it. Congratulations to you and your team, Christian.

About  Christian

Christian Sommer has been living and working in China for over 20 years. The lawyer and passionate table tennis player began his career in one of the first German law firms in Shanghai and then built up the German Centre Beijing before taking up his current position in 2005. In 2016 he opened the German Centre in Taicang, a subsidiary of the German Centre Shanghai, and the German Enterprise Centre in Qingdao. In 2016 he was appointed program ambassador for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s German Chancellor Fellowship for China. In 2017 he was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. In 2021 Christian Sommer received the Magnolia Silver Award for an outstanding commitment from the city of Shanghai. He promotes the Sino-German cultural exchange as a bassist and founding member of the Shanghai rock band “Shang High Voltage” and as a co-organizer of Chinese-German table tennis tournaments.

About Daniel

Daniel Heusser studied architecture at the ETH Zurich and Southeast University in Nanjing. In 1994, he came to China to set up a Joint Venture for a Swiss architecture firm. Daniel has been in charge of the architecture and project management company VIRTUARCH since 2003. VIRTUARCH has offices in Shanghai, Bangkok, and Zurich and encompasses a team of 80. Daniel and his team have worked on over 120 school projects in China and Southeast Asia, including the Eurocampus projects in Shanghai, the German School Pudong, and school campuses for Dulwich in Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing, and Zhuhai, to name but a few.

About the German Center Taicang

In June 2016, the world’s sixth German Center opened in Taicang on five floors with a total area of 8,500 m². Awarded the LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and DGNB Gold (German Sustainable Building Council) certificate, modern office space in a prime location is available to German, international and Chinese companies. The German Center Taicang is a subsidiary of the German Center Shanghai, which belongs to BayernLB. It is part of a global German Center network with additional locations in Shanghai, Beijing, Mexico, Singapore, and Moscow. The German Centers are supported by BayernLB and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. They are supported by ministries at the federal and state level as well as associations and institutions such as DIHK, VDMA, and BDI.

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