Ten years ago, SPACE10 was born as a pioneering platform ushering in a novel approach to corporate innovation, consolidating itself for its ability to be open, democratic, driven by a playful purpose, and community-oriented. Composed of a small core team of around 23 people based in Copenhagen, their efforts have focused on combining the power of creativity, science, and technology to find solutions that address the accelerated climate crisis and social injustices.
The research and design laboratory made a great collaborative effort by inviting people from all over the world to help imagine and design a better path forward for both people and the planet. Through various events, ideas, concepts, and perspectives were openly shared with the public, sowing the seed of imagining new futures.
Being fully funded and entirely dedicated to IKEA to bring an outside-in approach to innovation, the goal was to foster a stronger culture of innovation within the company to inspire new strategies and create new business opportunities within and around the brand. Today, after successfully achieving those objectives during 10 years of partnership with Inter IKEA, it has been announced that SPACE10 will close its doors.
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. We know the vision and values of SPACE10 will continue to spread to new places and organisations via our incredible team, the 500 partners we’ve worked with throughout the years and by the 250,000 people in our community. SPACE10 will only close as a company, while the mission lives on.
— Kaave Pour, co-founder and head of SPACE10
These 10 years of trajectory have left an important legacy in the design and innovation community worldwide, which is why it is important to honor and continue studying these collaborative projects so that they continue to enrich the collective imagination of possible futures. SPACE10 inspired IKEA to open a new store format in urban areas, as well as to plant the seeds for a new, healthier, and more sustainable food menu for IKEA customers.
The laboratory developed a report to identify the essential elements of healthy homes and global design competitions with artificial intelligence to explore and discuss the use of these tools. Additionally, it conducted specific research in countries like Colombia that resulted in documentaries exploring community urbanism. It carried out various pop-ups like the one in Mexico where it created spaces for discussion and research for the future that translated into local biomaterial projects. Last year, the platform opened its offices to the community with a public library of 100 selected design books, which last week (August 22, 2023) won an award at the Fast Company's 2023 Innovation by Design Awards.
The collaboration between SPACE10 and Inter IKEA Group has been a great learning with multifaceted achievements and outcomes over the years. SPACE10 has challenged our mindset of thinking outside the box, they have been our eyes around the corner looking into the future, facilitating new partnerships and business ventures, helping us investigate how we can create a better everyday life for the many people. But perhaps most significantly, the partnership between Inter IKEA and SPACE10 has motivated our internal innovation culture and inspired us in how we approach innovation at IKEA.
— Jon Abrahamsson Ring, CEO Inter IKEA Group
The influence of this platform has been recognized with various design awards, including being recognized as one of the most innovative design companies in the world by Fast Company "for tackling tough issues, like affordable housing and sustainable food, with ingenious designs." SPACE10's work has been exhibited in museums around the world, from the Design Museum in London to the Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture, from the UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi to the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
SPACE10's collaborative approach has created a community of 250,000 people from over 100 countries who have joined the weekly events. In addition, independent creatives, specialists, and students from institutions such as the Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT, and ECAL have joined the residency program to co-create ideas and solutions with the team.
To celebrate a decade of innovation at SPACE10, a new website is launched featuring selected work from 2015-2023, which contains all internal data, presentation templates, guidelines, team manuals, projects, and exhibitions that will be available to the general public. SPACE10 will wind down all operations and storytelling by September 1, 2023.
For more information, visit SPACE10.
