Swedish furniture manufacturer IKEA recently opened a new innovation lab in Copenhagen’s hip meatpacking district. (Photo : Reuters/Neil Hall)
Swedish furniture manufacturer IKEA recently opened a new innovation lab located in Copenhagen's hip meatpacking district. The new lab, called Space10, is open for designers with revolutionary ideas regarding home design.
IKEA is hoping that the new Space10 lab is where the company's "Next Big Idea" will take its roots. The lab is now open for those who are willing to join IKEA's pool of talented designers. It is currently run by Rebel Agency.
Space10 is built inside a redesigned fishery and will operate like a French salon. It will feature a rotating lineup of students, artists, professors and designers. IKEA is encouraging people with innovative ideas to join its newly formed lab.
According to Fast Code Design, the Space10 lab will delve deeper into the future of urban living. Each lab will last for three months and will follow a certain theme, the first being, Fresh Living.
The main purpose of the Space10 lab is to provide a venue where designers can create new projects. One very interesting design presented by students from Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design is a tabletop take takes heat from coffee mugs or computers and then covert it into energy which can be used to recharge devices.
IKEA manager of concept innovation Goran Nilsson told Wired, "If that happened elsewhere in IKEA it would have taken a year. But these students came up with it in two weeks."
Nilsson described Space10 as a haven for innovators to create or develop a new concept. He added that it is not a factory where people always expect something to come out of it on a regular basis.
