FUNDERA Business Forum – Hechingen

ewimed makes catheter and drainage systems, and has grown steadily since 1991 in the cluster of medical-technology firms around Hechingen, south of Stuttgart. Its new headquarters is built for a company that expects to keep growing: 140 workstations, of which ewimed occupies 63 on the upper floor at opening, with the 77 below let as co-working space that the company can absorb floor by floor without any structural work.

Co-working is unusual in rural Germany, but the Hechingen region has enough medical start-ups, freelancers and small firms to fill it, and the arrangement suits both sides: ewimed supplies the infrastructure, the tenants bring the traffic. The ground floor works as a conference centre open to all of them and to the public, running from workshop rooms and a boardroom to a hall for a hundred people, alongside a restaurant that doubles as an events kitchen and aims to draw diners in its own right.

Everything organises around a central atrium under a glazed roof, with two access cores and balconies deep enough for tea points and seating islands. A sculpture of looping light tubes hangs through the void, its geometry a quiet nod to the form of the company’s products. Planting runs along every parapet, terrazzo and pale timber keep the palette warm, and mesh curtains and mobile whiteboards let teams close spaces off without building walls. The best view is free: from many desks, past orchards and meadows, to Hohenzollern Castle on its hill.