Ingka Centres has piloted a new coworking concept at its Kungens Kurva meeting place in Sweden in partnership with IKEA for business
Hej!Workshop is a new flexible alternative to the workplace or home office – for everyone from freelancers to a whole company
Kungens Kurva, located in dynamically developing area close to Stockholm, is visited 20 million times annually
8 June 2022 - Ingka Centres, part of the Ingka Group (which also includes IKEA Retail and Ingka Investments), today unveiled its latest step into mixed-use meeting places with the opening of Hej!Workshop, a 700m2 coworking space at its meeting place in Kungens Kurva, near to Stockholm. Hej!Workshop is a brand new concept of easily accessible and flexible community workplaces where local entrepreneurship and business are linked together to develop and grow. The idea is to offer an alternative to working from home or commuting to the office and thus simplify everyday life and create a better balance between work and leisure for the many people. Hej! Is a Swedish word used casually as a greeting between friends and equals.
The concept has been developed in partnership with IKEA for Business, which has contributed all the interior design, and supplied furniture and fittings. Hej!Workshop was designed with the idea of creating a workspace where everyone can feel healthier and more energized after a day at work. It also makes sustainable working practices easy, as it is fitted-out with biobased, recycled, sustainably grown or renewable materials along with highly-efficient equipment for optimum use of energy and water. Ingka Centres’ Global Commercial and Digital Director, Jens Nielsen, commented: “Globally we’re all living and working more flexibly, and so our meeting places must continue to evolve to meet the needs of our local communities. I’m so proud to unveil our new coworking spaces in partnership with IKEA for Business, offering accessible and inspirational workspaces”.
The new co-working concept is the latest innovation to be piloted by Ingka Centres as part of the transformation of its meeting places which stretch from San Francisco to Shanghai. Earlier this year, Ingka Centres unveiled Livat Hammersmith in London, its first ever format urban meeting place, which included IKEA’s first smaller high street store and which recently piloted Atelier100, a collaboration between Ingka Group and H&M for hyper-local designs and products sourced from London and its surrounding regions.
Nielsen concludes: “Our meeting places are evolving to stay relevant to modern lives, and I’m excited by all the ways in which we’re working with communities to tailor our experiences to their needs. I’ve never been more convinced that retail, leisure and business benefit from physical connected spaces that complement modern digital lifestyles. We’ve all spent too long locked away, and the value of exposure to new ideas, experiences and contacts has never been higher.”