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Ikea just opened an innovation lab in Copenhagen and it's gorgeously Scandinavian

Drake Baer

2015-11-20T19:05:00Z

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This week Ikea opened its very first Space10 innovation lab, named for the medium that Ikea works in (space) and the language coders speak (1's and 0's).

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It's in the increasingly cool meatpacking district of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ikea concept innovation manager Göran Nilsson tells Tech Insider that it's a place built to "explore wild ideas."

Here's how.

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Space10 describes itself as "a future-living lab and exhibition space."

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There are air plants.

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And face plants.

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Even a couch desk.

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The space itself is deeply Scandinavian — clean yet warm.

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It's a partnership between Ikea, the creative agency Rebel Agency, and a rotating group of college students.

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Göran Nilsson says that the overarching goals is to understand the future of urban living — and the consequences of living in cities.

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Space10's first project is the "Fresh Living Lab," where student designers are emphasizing healthier and more sustainable living in cities.

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The collaboration is with a dozen students from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. They've worked with Ikea to create super-cool prototypes.

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One particularly impressive prototype is a table that transfers heat to generate electricity. The idea is that your body heat could generate enough power to charge your phone.

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If Ikea were trying to demo ideas like that in house, Nilsson says that "it would have taken a year or two." But a student did it in two weeks.

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Nilsson says that Ikea chose Copenhagen because it's young, bold, and ambitious. It's intent on becoming the cycling capital of the world by 2020, and it already has the most innovative restaurant on earth, Noma.

copenhagen

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Space10 is a digital environment "that smells like sawdust," Nilsson says, making it very Ikea.

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Nilsson says that there will be more Space 10s to come in places like Brooklyn, Los Angeles, or Shanghai. "This is the start," he says, "not the ending."

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