IPS
Belgium
It all started on October 1, 1992 in Bergstraat 17,
Overijse where the small room upstairs had been declared
as office when we moved in end 1989. 10 m2 that was
it, but equipped with an A4 and later A3 b/w screen.
After the company had started to hire staff as from
June 1993, we've quickly moved to Venusberg 7, where
we've declared one room as office (20 m2, indeed). A
little later, half of the living room (another 20 m2)
had also be declared as office space and in May 1995
started the construction of the extension of the house
: 2 x 32 m2 + cellar as storage, connected to one of
the rooms which was my office. Very nice arrangement
with a lot of natural light. Construction was finished
in less than 4 months and in September 1995 the company
moved into our new 100 m2 area.
As the company continued to grow, we've decided to build
Heiberg, again the combination as house + office, this
time with 200 m2 + storage arranged for the company.
August 2001 we've moved in. There was no outside road
(just mud), walls were not painted (the homedryer was
still running) and the upstairs meeting area was not
ready. The private area had no ceiling yet. Nevertheless,
Tineke arranged the delivery of the upstairs furniture
on January 30 and on January 31 2002 we've organized
a project evaluation meeting with the whole CALP team
(18 people) and had a nice dinner in our living room
(without ceiling). In the mean time ceilings and painting
have been performed and again, the IPS Competence Center
is waiting for us. We'll enter the
IPS Competence Center in pretty completed condition
and I hope we will all respect it. Doing this, it will
certainly evolve to one of the best office / project
spaces in Belgium.
The next move
is not foreseen for the next 10 years - although some
will move to the second building that is foreseen to
be built in 2008 or 2009, so let's do it well.
IPS
Germany
In January 1995, Ann and I left Belgium in the night
to drive with our Ascona full of paper, paint and Knauf
to Senftenberg - former eastern Germany, where we arrived
in the morning and immediately started to prepare the
walls and the ceiling of a small stand alone office
within an old industrial area (Size 25 m2). The pack
of Knauf my dad gave me seemed to be not sufficient
and we had to drive out to Praktiker to purchase another
20 kg of the stuff to fill the cracks in the ceiling
and the walls. We had prepared curtains and everything
and by the end of the week, the office was ready and
an office desk installed. Coffee machine was also there
as well as a seat convirtible to bed as I intended to
sleep there. In the mean time, some people took the
radiators away so that we had to purchase an electric
heater. We had to sleep in the office the last night
as we had no hotel booked and the last painting works
still had to be performed. Anyway, we came back on Saturday,
had a stop in Liège to eat (there you can eat
anytime) and got a week of bad cold as a result of the
missing heating. Funny is that not one IPS staff ever
worked one hour in this office ! The move consisted
to send a lorry to Senftenberg in 2000 to pick up the
stuff and bring it to Eisenhuttenstadt where we had
our offices since beginning of 1996.
First IPS shared an office in the blast furnace building
(which has been demolished since then) and in 1997 we
rented a nice 3 room office in the quality center of
EKO Stahl, while having another working office integrated
in the VZA2 team building. It is from the Quality Center
office that we've coordinated the construction of the
main building of the IPS Technological
Center into which we moved in August 2002 (first
private party with a small radio-cassette took already
place in May of course). These were nice times as the
building was completely finalized at that time, including
the grand piano. In 2004 we've built the extension and
today we have a nice and highly professional conference
center in our hands. Those who already followed some
courses overthere know what it's worth.
We're certainly never are going to move from there as
the building gives so much energy to the inhabitants,
whether permanent or occasional. On the other hand it
might well be that we will organize subsidiaries in
other parts of Germany.
LTA |
