The new building serves several purposes all at once for the police in the Mönchengladbach district. With the exception of the Hauptwache in Mönchengladbach’s Rheydt district, as well as the district offices and the citizens’ contact point in the Alter Markt, all organisational units have been brought together at the new location on Krefelder Straße. Furthermore, additional space has been created for the hub’s command and location service, the Mönchengladbach police station itself, and a police custody facility. The building now also unites the forensic investigation department, training centre, police medical service, and service dog team. With so many teams under one roof, space is a crucial factor, so it is fortunate that the five-storey new-build extends over a length of 160 metres. Spanning over 23,000 square metres, the new police headquarters employs more than 760 civil servants across various departments. And as different as their jobs are, so too are their requirements for how their workspaces are kitted out. In fact, a total of 550 workspaces are required, split across a whole host of individual and group offices.

Christian Riepe and Günter Haselier from the Central Tasks Directorate are responsible for planning the furnishings for the new building. From offices fit for hundreds right down to the changing rooms, several hundred items are needed, including storage systems, lockable cupboards, filing cabinets and office desks. The office furniture systems from ASSMANN were already high on the priority list, since the local police stations have been relying on furniture solutions from Melle for years now. This is why Christian Riepe and Günter Haselier paid a visit to the family company at ORGATEC 2016 to find out about all the latest innovations in the range. The open-space containers in the Pontis series proved particularly popular, as the design and dimensions of the available storage space were ideal for the day-to-day requirements of the headquarters according to Günter Haselier. The specialist office furniture retail partner, pro OFFICE – Gesellschaft für Objekt- und Inneneinrichtung mbH, was involved throughout the entire furnishing process within the police headquarters: From the planning to the installation of all pieces of furniture, Managing Director Christian Krämer was always on hand with his personal team. The high number of workstations required called for a huge amount of logistical effort from everyone involved, especially since the rooms were occupied on a floor-by-floor basis. As soon as the building work was complete, it was time to start furnishing the offices so that people could move in and start working right after. This meant it was possible to set up and occupy around 550 workstations in just five weeks.

The police headquarters in Mönchengladbach rely on the triedand- tested sit-stand desks from the ASSMANN Canvaro range to create an ergonomic working environment. This versatile desk system offers the ideal solution – particularly in the on-call rooms where the people working in them are constantly changing – since the working height can be adjusted to suit each new user in a matter of seconds. And as different as the various users are, so too are the ways in which these furniture systems can be used: this is particularly apparent in the individual offices, where the open-space containers can be used either as a room divider or to provide additional seating for spontaneous visitors. In addition to the Canvaro desks and the Pontis storage systems, the police headquarters also relies on Allvia products on a day-to-day basis, since the shelving and cabinet systems offer plenty of space for the mountains of police paperwork. Bespoke Allvia solutions can also be found in the changing rooms for the many employees, too: when it’s time to don the blue uniform and store everyday clothes and valuables somewhere safe, ASSMANN products come to the rescue with secure, vented lockers from the Allvia storage system range.