Gallery: The Innovation Lab Where IKEA Will Get Its Next Big Idea

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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Ikea just opened an innovation lab in Copenhagen.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Pictured here, it's where the company hopes it can cook up its Next Big Idea.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Ikea renovated a fishery in Copenhagen's up-and-coming meatpacking neighborhood.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Space10 doesn’t have what Göran Nilsson, manager of concept innovation for Inter Ikea Systems B.V., calls “the corporate expectations, with the blue and yellow entrance.”
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    It officially opened last week, and is being run by the locally based Rebel Agency.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Space10 will operate a bit like a French salon, with a rotating cast of professors, students, designers, artists, producers, and generally interesting people flowing in and out for workshops and exhibits.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Everything is designed to foster thinking and creativity, with little emphasis on actual product development.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    They’ll brainstorm and create projects that touch on predetermined themes.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    One theme might be the "circular economy," a cradle to cradle kind of idea about resource allocation.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    For example: students from the Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design came up with a tabletop that can take heat from hot mugs of coffee, or computers, and convert it into energy, to recharge devices.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    This isn't a product you'll see in Ikea stores any time soon, and that's the point.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
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    Space10Workshop-7-5-(c)-Zinna Brigh Mac-Eochaidh

    “It’s not a factory that should always produce something,” Nilsson says. “It’s development of a concept, not development of a product.”
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