The more than 1000-year-old Benedictine abbey in Mettlach, Germany, is the headquarters of the ceramic manufacturer Villeroy & Boch. The new office and conference center “Fabrik N°09” offers a future-oriented working environment on 4,000 m² of floor space, which enables variable use and creates space for innovative ideas. The ambience and the room acoustics on the three levels, which are connected by an open central stairwell, contribute 2500 m² of velour carpet. The quality CONTRACT 1000 was laid by OBJECT CARPET, custom-made with the design FREESTILE ROME: Classic-elegant and reduced in colour, the timeless-looking carpet blends perfectly with the historic ceramic tiles from Villeroy & Boch. Modern workplaces and diverse meeting spaces support communication and creative exchange. In three zones – “marketplace”, “working” and “networking” - the space is available to over 200 employees from different fields. “I am proud that we have created a modern working environment for our employees with the completion of Factory N°09. We promote networked collaboration and the exchange of information and communication on a wide range of work and project areas – above all across the boundaries of departments and corporate divisions, “explains Frank Göring, CEO of Villeroy & Boch AG. The spaces for informal exchanges were created in a very targeted manner, because the well-known design company knows that around 85 percent of all innovations arise out of incidental communication and unplanned meetings. Therefore, classic office structures have been almost completely dissolved in favor of a modern working world.