The Sweden company Kinnarps, the first manufacturer of office furniture in Europe in terms of sales, has recently inaugurated the new International Design Centre in Skillingaryd, based on Next Office approach, to meet future interior design concept and furniture design demands and trends. The aim is that the new design centre will function as a creative hub and lead to an increase in in-house collaboration, shorter lead times and that we can improve our customers’ working environments, says Per-Arne Andersson, CEO at Kinnarps AB.
Since the middle of the 80s, Kinnarps has worked with “in-between” environments outside the traditional office workplace and today offers interior design solutions that suit receptions, lounges, meeting rooms, cafés and canteens. The Kinnarps International Design Centre in Skillingaryd is tasked with streamlining and developing the product range to fit these environments together with concepts and products for care and education segments.
“We see a trend where formal spaces are converted into more open and informal ones, which require new types of interior design solutions. More and more people are today looking for creative corners, open meeting rooms, relaxing break rooms and partitioning to create rooms within a room, and we of course have to keep in step with this development,” says Per-Arne Andersson, CEO at Kinnarps AB.
The entire centre has a smart, activity-based interior in accordance with the Kinnarps’ “Next Office – Activity Based Working” concept. This means that the centre has a number of inspiring, flexible working environments that support diverse activities. In addition to the centre in Skillingaryd, the Kinnarps Group has two other International Design Centres, one in Kinnarp with a focus on workstations and one in Minden that focuses in the Drabert and Martin Stoll brands.
Easy chairs, sofas, chairs and acoustic screens have been made in Kinnarps’ production facilities in Skillingaryd for some time. Padded furniture is also important in the Interior Spaces segment, which made it only natural to locate the design centre in Skillingaryd. Design, technology, construction, development and production technology expertise is now housed under the one roof on a newly converted floor in the building and work with coming up with the interior design solutions of the future is already underway.
“Our product launch plan is an ambitious one, where we will launch five to ten new product ranges annually in the coming years. This high product launch rate of course places demands on us having a fast and efficient product development process in place. The aim is that our new design centre will function as a creative cluster and lead to an increase in in-house collaboration, shorter lead times and that we can improve our customers’ working environments,” says Per-Arne Andersson.
The photo-gallery shows the amazing and “inspiring” non-conventional workplace inside the new Kinnarps International Design Centre in Skillingaryd.