Kindred
Studio Stockholm has worked with many gaming and tech companies over the years and has gained a deep understanding of their specific needs and how to address them.
In 2017, online gambling operator Kindred Group turned to Studio Stockholm for helpcreating an innovative and international tech hub in Stockholm that would reflect Kindred’s culture and values, and accommodate an expanding workforce.
Kindred Group employs more than 1,500 people worldwide and has offices in, among other places, London, Malta, New York and Sydney. Approximately 350 people work in Stockholm, where the company’s new office is centrally located.
Challenge
- Create a workplace solution to match current needs as well as future needs asKindred Group expands
- Design an office with an international high-tech feeling that could be rolled out inother countries where Kindred operates
- Ensure that the workplace reflects the entire Kindred Group rather than one ofits 11 consumer brands
- Develop different areas for different team needs, including closed high-securityareas, while at the same time encouraging staff interaction and openness
Process
- The process included discussions with all employee teams to ensure that each group’s specific needs would be met
- Plenty of additional workspaces and equipment were added to enable employeesfrom other countries to drop in and work. Studio Stockholm even helped Kindred develop its IT platform to enable this.
- An advanced lighting solution was installed to achieve the right atmosphere for different occasions
- Focusing on employee wellbeing resulted in the addition of a juice bar, ergonomic workstations, and a leafy in-house atrium that provides an oasis fromthe digital world. Here employees can connect with nature – as well as each other, through impromptu gatherings or a game of table tennis.
- A large open stairway and atrium connect the two-storey office providing meeting points for employee interaction and the strengthening of a common company culture
- Working with diagonal flows throughout the premises generates unexpected patterns of movement that encourage more informal meetings among staff
Result
- A scalable solution was created where there is room to add additional workspaces in today’s spacious (8,000 m2) interior
- An international concept has been achieved in premises where there is a harmonious balance between digital and analogue elements
- The design, which is free of formal barriers, has lead to more informal meetings, resulting in a greater exchange of ideas and increased understanding of customers
- Teams are working more effectively since their work area needs have been met
- The concept has been so successful that it will serve as a model when KindredGroup builds its other offices
