Who would have knew that Ikea is actually the coolest kid in town with their living lab Space10? I think Carla Cammilla Hjort’s keynote on Future Living Lab at Asuntomessut Digitalist –event was the most inspiring speech I’ve seen in a while. Ikea definitely is ahead of their game when is comes to design thinking, co-creation and storytelling!

Picture from Space10 Playbook

So, first shortly, what is Space10?
It is Ikea’s future-living lab on a mission to design a better and more sustainable way of living. Space10’s Playbook explains it well:

Ikea has a vision to create a better everyday life for the ,any people and acknowledges that to fulfil this vision, we need new ways of doing things. That is why they have set up SPACE10, a future-living lab for exploration and inspiration, rooted in the idea that together we can co-create a better and more sustainable life.

We all have a choice to make. We can close our eyes and hope for the best, or we can come together and shape the future we dream of.

What is does?
In Space10, Ikea is able to:
–> Experiment and co-create new ways of designing for a better future
–> Look into new directions and explore emerging potentials
–> Work with global collaborative network of experts and forward-thinking partners
–> Test and try new ideas and solutions in a non-commercial environment
–> Storytell and share everything we do to spark the discussion, make ideas stick and move people to action
–> Create a playground for IKEA to be inspired and connect with new opportunities

How is it done?
Space10 uses a collaborative network driven approach. Camilla explained that Space10 team is small, only about 30 employees, but they work with a large network of experts in different fields. In that way they are able to truly co-create and also have customized teams in each project.

Picture from SPACE10 Playbook

Space10 uses a set of tools, and they believe that a good tool is a job half done. The most inspiring tool they use is called Playful research. A great example of it is e.g. www.onesharedhouse2030.com. ONE SHARED HOUSE 2030 is a playful research project by anton & irene + SPACE10 that aims to get insights on the future of co-living through a collaborative survey. The project is a sequel to the interactive documentary ONE SHARED HOUSE.

Picture from https://onesharedhouse2030.com

The process Space10 uses is innovation framework that has three stages: explorations, prototypes and pilots. The process emphasize testing as early as possible. “We know that the longer we work on our plans in a vacuum, the more likely we are to fail”.

WHY is it done?

In her presentation Carla showed this striking photo and asked “How can we design empowerment rather than addiction?”. “Technological breakthroughs” is one of five macrotrends Ikea have identified.

Picture from Carla’s presentation

Carla stated that if a company does not change the way people behave, they won’t change the society neither. She also highlighted the importance of designing social interactions, not only to design services or products. She claimed that a lot of things have been build, but if these things lack the culture, they lack life. I guess the same goes with any products, or services, or companies. If one does not engage with the users and the community, the end result is empty.

How cool is this? Every company should have its’ own lab to explore the world and its’ opportunities. Space10 also proves that Ikea is definitely not settling, it understands that the world, the business and the people are constantly changing. IKEA has to keep up. And maybe not just to keep up, but to lead the way. With Innovation lab, they invite the best designers, influencers and the critical crowd to be part of their story.

This blog post was written by,
Emmi Kinnunen
SID student