Challenge

  • Encourage all the staff to switch to an activity-based approach.
  • Open up the office to Vasakronan’s tenants and create added value for their clients.
  • The premises are larger than what Vasakronan needs.
  • Making the office into an inspiring example and showing tenants the potential of having an activity-based office.
  • Create the opportunity to sometimes share the office with other tenants.- Ordinary office building lacking in personality.
  • The premises must be handed over quickly if a tenant wants to take over the office.

Process

  • Perform a feasibility study and analysis using workshops, employee performance surveys and interviews to create a mission statement and an overview of present needs and challenges.
  • Initiate an activity-based approach and a clear strategic goal.- Create a clear concept in the form of “a campus”. The concept should have references to Uppsala city and evoke curiosity, knowledge sharing, collaboration, innovation and gumption.
  • Create an open, inspiring environment with room for both energising meeting spaces and areas for peaceful concentration. Open spaces combined with nooks and hubs.
  • Design a lounge instead of a reception so as to provide a welcoming sense of community and a small-town feeling.
  • Retrieve design inspiration from campus environments where buildings and parks coexist.
  • Base the office on long-term environmental thinking and choose sustainable materials as a key ingredient in the concept. A combination of new, self-produced and reused furniture and furnishing solutions will create a dynamic atmosphere with a little twist.
  • Create an open floor plan so that the premises can be shared between Vasakronan and other organisations.
  • Design an area that can be easily adapted and divided into smaller offices.

Result

  • An entirely activity-based office with increased functionality and flexibility.
  • A more efficient way of working and satisfied employees. The entire staff, including the customer service team, technicians and receptionist, have switched to an activity-based approach and share all the workspaces. When the staff have the opportunity to mingle, exciting meetings with tenants or partners who come to visit can arise.
  • The office has become a culturally significant meeting place and has strengthened Vasakronan’s brand.
  • Vasakronan can share their office with partners, customers and suppliers. Tenants can use the office as a temporary workplace leading to exciting meetings, relationship building and a cross-fertilisation of ideas.
  • The office premises are used jointly during and after office hours. The auditorium is used for workshops, lectures, internal meetings and yoga.
  • The office has received a lot of attention in the media and was even nominated in the competition “Sweden’s best-designed office in 2015”.