Tax Consultancy
Munich
Name
Tax Consultancy
Client
Lang + Ochsenbauer
Program
Office
Location
Munich
Project
2005
Status
completed
Parcel
–
Area
203 m2
Footprint
126 m2
Through the very bright staircase, you enter the L17 law firm. You step into a stunning, utterly unexpected space rendered in a magical, matte black on both walls and ceiling—with white lettering on the black left-hand wall. Directly opposite, on the right wall, floor-to-ceiling mirrors are installed, which visually expand the space and, through the viewer’s reflection, imbue it with scale and significance. The light comes from white ceiling floodlights that are movable along a power rail according to the floor plan. Even the floor is black, made of linoleum, while the doors and door frames are dazzling white and high-gloss lacquered. This is not a typical „law firm“… yet it is a special place. The bold red of the circulation area and the promising brightness of the reception are both enticing. The spatial orientation is crystal clear, as are the hierarchies of the rooms. The foosball table is located in the „green“ area—although it itself has been spray-painted matte black in a Darth Vader-esque style.
Questions of the Imagination
„I find myself preoccupied with the questions: Who ends up having to deal with the courts? Why does one have to deal with the courts? How can one go about avoiding dealing with the courts? And if one does have to deal with the courts, with whom does one have to deal?“
These questions introduce the foreword to a “Reader for the Accused” published in 1931 by the Viennese criminal defense attorney Walther Rode. Today, they serve as the prologue for a visit to our law firm on Ledererstraße. Anyone who reads them gets a first hint that when it comes to court proceedings, not everything is predetermined. There, as in so many other places, people are at work. Whether that is good or bad is another matter for now, but it should never be forgotten.
It was Peter Bohn’s idea to “text” the reception and conference room, and he asked me to select a few passages. In doing so, he casually led me to consider what first impressions we want to convey to those who enter our law firm. The seemingly simplest and safest approach is to greet one’s clients with as many indications of one’s own professionalism as possible. However, this approach sometimes creates more distance than trust.
My partners and I have considered it a privilege to be able to design our workplace according to our own ideas. We soon agreed that, in addition to a professional external appearance, we also wanted to create a personal one. In the new spaces for us—which had previously housed the city treasurer’s office for over fifty years—this initially meant taming the bureaucratic spirit that had become overwhelming during that time and, where it could not or should not be driven out, giving it a respectable exterior. Thus, there were—and still are—meter-long wooden filing cabinets along the walls, whose sliding roller doors are a true rarity. Yet the usual approach would have been to remove them and install a modern shelving system. With us, however, today shine…
