The classic design of the furniture goes well with this building’s characteristic style.

Close to Stuttgart main station, parallel to the Schlossgarten park, there’s a narrow plot of land with a new building on it, six storeys high and 200 m long. Since February 2013, the new building houses the Ministries of the Interior, of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector, as well as the Ministries of Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection, which had previously been dispersed across 20 different locations. Jutties and recesses provide rhythm and structure, and atria of different sizes provide natural light for the interior. The choice of materials both on the outside and the inside is unobtrusive, as befits the building’s use. Inside, the grey-brown hues of the light-coloured, sand blasted concrete, the polished floor screed and the door frames emphasise the ministerial character. In the atria, steel rings tall as a house mounted on the walls are eye-catchers.

Matching the building, the architects of Staab Architekten and the awarding authority decided to deploy fina sled-base chairs made by Brunner. They not only excel in terms of seating comfort, but also by their delicate seat shell tapering off towards the outside, sporting only a very slim 5mm edge. It was a decisive point for awarding the project to Brunner and selecting fina chairs that a special solution could be put into practice: architect and awarding authority alike had required a wider armrest for the chairs in the conference area. The visitors’ chairs in the offices have no armrests. Both variants received a horizontal oak cover veneer stained in smoked- oak colour. fina chairs in the ministerial restaurant are white. fina swivel chairs are deployed in IT training rooms.

The three ministries’ equipment also comprises 200 Brunner tables. During conferences, participants can now put their documents on the all-round folding table sleight, or on special editions of the clear model. In the restaurant, guests take their meals at stand-up and single-column tables of the 3000 series.