IKEA’s Experimental & Design Lab, SPACE10, Shutters After A Decade

Open Fabrication Democratizing Custom-Made Design, in collaboration with Ransmeier Inc. Photo by Ransmeier Inc, courtesy of SPACE10

After a decade of cooking up bug-based “meatballs” and homes for future generations—and honeybees too—SPACE10, the experimental and design lab affiliated with IKEA, has announced it will permanently close its doors on August 31, 2023. This farewell marks the culmination of its mission to ignite invention with the IKEA brand from the outside by collaborating with other like-minded innovators.

The studio was “never meant to last,” SPACE10 emphasizes in an email to DesignTAXI. It had “a very specific purpose in mind—to spark a stronger innovation culture at IKEA, build new partnerships and create new opportunities within and around the IKEA brand.”

Photo by Hampus Berndtson, courtesy of SPACE10

Now that it’s fulfilled everything it set out to do, SPACE10 says it feels it is the right time to close this chapter.

Luckily, all its transformative work won’t go poof. To mark a full decade of exploration, SPACE10 has launched a new website to wedge its experimental thinking into the future.

“We may be closing the doors to our office, but we hope our work will continue to inspire,” it notes.

The journey of SPACE10 began in 2014 when it joined forces with IKEA, and the lab officially opened its doors in November 2015 in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district. Breaking away from conventional corporate ideals, SPACE10 functioned on an open, democratic, and community-driven ethos. It combined creativity, science, and technology to tackle urgent issues like the climate crisis and social inequalities.

Tomorrow’s Meatball. Photo by Lukas Renland, courtesy of SPACE10

With the intent of thinking wildly out of the SAMLA box, SPACE10 functioned as a fully-funded entity under IKEA’s ownership, with the hope of bringing external perspectives to the furniture giant. With a small team of around 23 individuals working at SPACE10, it left ample room for creative minds from across the globe to bring their ideas for a brighter future to the table.

Spaces on Wheels, in collaboration with Foam Studio. Image by Foam Studio, courtesy of SPACE10

Throughout its existence, SPACE10 embarked on a multitude of innovative explorations alongside 500 partners. Notably, the lab played a pivotal role in developing the augmented-reality app IKEA Place, lauded by Apple CEO Tim Cook as the “future of shopping” when showing off the iPhone’s AR prowess in 2017.

IKEA Place, in collaboration with Norgram. Image courtesy of SPACE10

SPACE10 also delved into multifaceted ventures such as flat-pack housing, self-driving cars, vertical farming, clean energy solutions, open-source design, generative artificial intelligence, and smart home concepts. This year alone, it flaunted a flat-pack couch that could fit into an envelope, and conjured up diversely whimsical furniture and tableware using the burgeoning technology of generative AI.

Bee Home, in collaboration with Tanita Klein and Bakken Baeck. Photo by Irina Boersma, courtesy of SPACE10

The lab’s dramatic endeavors bore fruit, accumulating over 120 design awards and nominations for its forward-thinking initiatives.

Lokal, in collaboration with Spacon. Photo by Rory Gardiner, courtesy of SPACE10

“SPACE10 was never meant to last and—after a decade working with IKEA—we have achieved what we initially set out to accomplish. We feel immensely proud to have influenced one of the biggest design companies in the world while making our ideas portable and shaping conversations in everything from technology, design, architecture and food,” describes Kaave Pour, co-founder and head of the lab. “SPACE10 will only close as a company, while the mission lives on.”

Inter IKEA Group’s CEO Jon Abrahamsson Ring chimes in, “The collaboration between SPACE10 and Inter IKEA Group has been a great [source of] learning with multifaceted achievements and outcomes over the years,” adding that the lab challenged the company’s idea of “thinking outside the box.”

While the company itself will dissolve, SPACE10 hopes its vision and values will continue to spread inspiration and spark conversations in new corners of the world. You can explore its captivating body of work on its newly-established website here.

“It’s been an incredible journey and we feel immensely proud of what we have accomplished with IKEA,” SPACE10 signs off in its final message to us.

SolarVille, in collaboration with SachsSachs. Photo by Irina Boersma, courtesy of SPACE10

Optical Soundsystem, in collaboration with ManvsMachine. Image by ManvsMachine, courtesy of SPACE10

[via SPACE10, images courtesy]