In building 83 MDC.C.

Coffee after 2 p.m. is a must – this urgent desire sparked the planning for a new café on the Berlin-Buch campus. One of those involved in the project from the very beginning is Professor Holger Gerhardt. We met him there shortly after the opening.

Does the coffee taste good?

Yes, absolutely excellent. They even have the right machine. Opening a café like this and then having bad coffee – that would be pointless.

Why is a new café so important?

We want to make the campus more communicative. For that, we need a central meeting point. We want a place where people feel comfortable, where they can linger and perhaps even work on their laptops. A place where they can meet by chance, exchange ideas, and spontaneously generate new concepts. A place where you observe something, something sparks your interest, and you decide: I'll go there! That's what it's all about.

None of this was really present before. We have these beautiful buildings scattered around the grounds, but everyone has their own coffee machine. It would already be a success if people could say: Come on, let's meet at the café! Even better would be if everyone said: This place belongs to us, and we want to shape it.

Of course, there are also very basic needs: Where can you reliably get something to eat or drink on the Berlin-Buch campus after 2 p.m.? We're not in the middle of the city where you can just quickly grab something around the corner.

What is the first impression?

The whole thing has a pop-up feel to it; it's not planned down to the last detail. I'm absolutely thrilled that not everything fits together perfectly. There are some old sofas we already had. Those wooden benches we know from the meadow. A restaurateur might not have chosen some of the tables because they could wobble. At the last minute, café workstations were added – all that's missing is the power connection.

A few things were important: We had to visually separate the café from the large monolith of this conference center. The ceiling needed to appear lower. We needed to create focal points and niches. With the plants, the shades, and the lighting, we succeeded. The MDC.C is actually an ideal location: It's centrally located and easily accessible for everyone on campus. It's bright, and the connection to the outside is very fluid.

On the road to opening, we spoke with various interest groups and users of the MDC.C – and we had to find solutions for bureaucratic regulations. This can be frustrating when you want to implement something quickly. Tenders, for example, can take months.

And then what?

At some point, we asked ourselves: What do we want to achieve? We need something now – not in three years when we might have found the perfect solution! That's how this pop-up came about. It's a design that can grow with us. The yellow furniture can be moved outside later. So can the parasols. If we want different furnishings in the long term, that's not a problem.

And what's perfect for one person might not be perfect for another. It's hard to plan for that. What will be important is that people participate, that they contribute their opinions, and that they appreciate what has been created here. It's a spirit of: "The main thing is that we get started and that we talk to each other." That's how you can achieve something.

One aspect of our new MDC2030 strategy is entitled "goal- and solution-oriented mindset." This approach has been particularly effective here, and we think it's fantastic. We've planted a seed here. Now we need to allow this seedling to develop and grow. But to do that, we also need to keep it alive and actively support it—water it, so to speak.

How can this be achieved?

For example, with regular events. We want to use the space for planned scientific discussions, perhaps even revive a Science Slam or the Chalk Talk series – and make it visible to everyone. These are initiatives that will strengthen the connections between all employees from the various departments of the Max Delbrück Center and, ideally, across the entire campus. Essentially, we want to establish a new culture. I'm convinced that this can be achieved. But it will require patience and perseverance.

Three wishes for the café?

We hope it will be successful and bring new life to the campus. That it will sow the seeds of positive thinking and a willingness to change. And we hope that the discussions here will spark ideas for exciting new science!