KERNWERK Elektro: how a medium-sized business fits out its office
This is how we picture a modern family firm fitting out the office of a trade business: not showy, but sure of where it stands. KERNWERK Elektro is a concept world: the vision of a medium-sized electrical contractor for refrigeration systems and heat pumps, with an office in Deep Walnut, our solid American walnut. Not a real customer project, but a concrete idea of what an office with presence can look like in the trades. One that is as good as the work on the shop floor next door.
At a glance
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Context
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The building blocks
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The idea
An office that works rather than poses, with Deep Walnut as the thread running through the founder’s office, the directors’ rooms, reception and the kitchenette. The glass wall to production keeps the management visibly connected to the workshop. Generations one and two work under one roof, each at a desk of their own, with a shared language in wood. |
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Why medium-sized businesses deserve a different office
If you know the offices of electrical contractors, heating engineers or plant manufacturers, you’ll often have seen the same thing: white walls, chipboard cabinets, cheap swivel chairs and a desk ordered from the wholesaler twenty years ago. It works. But it says nothing, even though medium-sized businesses are the core of the German economy.
Yet an office with presence in a trade business isn’t a luxury. It’s a tool. Wood grounds a room and balances it. These days the executive office of a medium-sized firm is desk, meeting room and reception in one, the public face of the business before the first word is spoken. KERNWERK Elektro is the concept world that makes that ambition visible: not a shop window, but an office as good as the work being done next door.
This is not a real project. It’s a vision of how our DeskPRO, ArcPURE and StudioPURE pieces can carry the rooms of a trade business.
A headquarters that doesn’t show off
On the business park the KERNWERK building holds back: clean lines, a dark facade, warm light from the office windows. No logo that shouts, and yet unmistakable.
If you mean it, you start on the outside. Fitting out the office of a trade business also means showing what customers and job applicants notice before they walk in.
Production stays in view
Behind reception there is a glass wall. Behind that the CNC machines are running, and in between lie a work jacket and a pair of safety boots. None of it is staged. It’s how the firm sees itself: whoever works here sees where the value is created. Every day.
This link between office and production hall is the heart of the concept. Solid walnut at reception, machines behind it: that is as honest as a medium-sized business gets.
The founder keeps the whole picture in view
Upstairs, at an ArcPURE corner desk in Deep Walnut, the founder works with a view over the hall. The two wings give him two modes: the screen in front of him for the figures, and room on the second side for drawings and conversations.
CableHIDE comes as standard, so no cables get in the way of thinking. A desk that takes the person running the business seriously, someone who rarely works in a straight line.
Two generations, one material
The ArcPURE is more than a desk. It’s where the founder shows his son the ropes without losing sight of the production hall. A handover works when you can still see where the turnover comes from.
That’s exactly what one material throughout is for: it turns two roles into one business. Here, wood stands for security, stability and reliability. A family firm doesn’t have to claim those values when the room conveys them.
“I like the slim shape. It looks incredibly slim. It looks as if it was made in one piece. It has no frills. The design is kept super simple.”
KERNWERK is a concept, but that quote is real. Björn Mauersberger is managing director of a company that works alongside medium-sized businesses, and he describes exactly what the KERNWERK office is about: a desk that has presence without imposing itself. Substance, not pose.
A DeskPRO for the next generation
Son and daughter help run the business. Both work at the same DeskPRO in Deep Walnut, and that is deliberate. There is no senior desk and no junior desk, only work that is taken seriously.
The DeskPRO brings what the second generation needs: soft-close drawers for paperwork, and a solid walnut top that doesn’t show every scratch. And it won’t need replacing in five years because a veneer is lifting.
Where the office meets the production hall
The son’s office is closer to production. His DeskPRO carries data sheets and a second screen, and behind it, through the glass front, the machines are running. Same desk, different tools.
The hard hat on the sideboard isn’t decoration. It tells you that someone here goes back and forth between desk and hall. That is exactly what robust solid walnut is made for.
Where customers arrive
At reception there is a lounge: two armchairs, a LoungePURE coffee table in Deep Walnut and, behind it, through glass, the workshop. This is where customers sit before the conversation begins.
A table in solid walnut rather than plastic changes how a business is seen, before anyone knows what it can do. Brown grounds a room, and wood takes the tone down a notch.
A sideboard that keeps the tone
Against the wall, in front of acoustic timber slats, stands a StudioPURE sideboard in Deep Walnut. Storage that looks like furniture, not like a filing cabinet.
This is the detail that separates a furnished office from a decorated one: when the same wood runs from the desk to the sideboard, furniture becomes a language.
Seven principles for fitting out the office of a trade business
1. One material, not a mix
One wood, carried through from reception to the mezzanine. Deep Walnut is the calm anchor the rooms take their bearings from, with no break in style between the management and the production hall.
2. A glass wall, not a partition
If production is the heart of the business, it belongs in view of the office. A glass wall to the production hall connects administration and production, visually and in the way the firm sees itself.
3. Same desks, clear roles
Two siblings in the management work at the same model of desk. The DeskPRO says nothing about rank: the role is defined by the work, not by the furniture.
4. The founder keeps the whole picture in view
The mezzanine office with its ArcPURE corner desk lets the founder work and watch. Handing over to the second generation succeeds when you can still see the production hall.
5. The lounge as a transition
Customers don’t meet the business in a negotiating room. They meet it in the lounge, with its LoungePURE coffee table and StudioPURE sideboard. That takes the tone down before the conversation begins.
6. Technology you don’t see
CableHIDE comes as standard, and PowerLINK brings power up to the surface. The cable clutter disappears. The wood stays in view.
7. Few pieces, but good ones
Presence doesn’t mean filling the room. Better a few well-made pieces of timeless design than a room that tries to show everything. Substance needs space.
Frequently asked questions: fitting out the office of a trade business and the executive office of a medium-sized firm
How do I fit out an office with presence in a trade business?
Is KERNWERK Elektro a real customer project?
Which desk suits the executive office of a medium-sized business?
Why Deep Walnut as the main wood for a trade business?
Can both siblings really use the same desk?
Are EDELHOLZ desks height-adjustable?
What about cables, power and technology at the desk?
How long is the lead time for a complete office?
A medium-sized business. Done properly.
The KERNWERK concept isn’t a showcase, and it isn’t an office for show. It’s a picture of how a trade business can fit out its office when it holds that office to the same standard as the products it makes. Deep Walnut throughout, a glass wall to the production hall, the same desks for the next generation, a founder on the mezzanine: these aren’t design gestures. They’re decisions about where you stand.
If you run a business in its second or third generation and want to bring your own office up to the standard of the workshop, step by step, we’re glad to help. Book a consultation, or read on about the desks themselves.
Would you like your office to work like this?
A personal conversation with Philipp Strobel. Free, no obligation, with concrete recommendations for your business.
Philipp Strobel is a qualified automotive engineer. He brings an engineer’s way of thinking to running a business, and develops desks in which function and design come out of one system. He has been developing products in wood since 2017, and since 2024, with EDELHOLZ, desks for business owners.
