For Kunskapsförbundet, one of the largest educational organisations in Sweden, their mission is to turn students dreams into reality. Appointing Swedish design studio Plats!, for their new headquarters, the institution aimed to create a fun and inspiring space for its staff and students alike.

Describing themselves as The Dream Factory (Drömfabriken), Kunskapsförbundet wants everyone to grow and feel excited about the future. Manifesting this, Plats! designed the space with an abundance of playful colours, flexible workspaces, and inspiring areas to encourage collaboration and creativity.

Welcome to the Dream Factory!

Lead designer Julia Lorenz of Plats! discussed the project with us and described how she responded to Kunskapsförbundet’s brief for an energetic, playful and dynamic working environment.

“We had a great contact with our representative Birthe right from the start, and Icons was so supportive and helpful guiding us through our selection of furniture.

The collection of products with simple yet well thought design made the decision-making process both pleasant and effective. It was easy to find beautiful, functional products to match the design intent and requirements for each room.”

A wide selection of Icons products can be seen throughout the space, from the large flexible meeting room to the dining and small conference rooms.

Flexibility at the center

Within the Dream Factory’s largest conference room, 2 x 2.8m long Kant tables were specified. The product was purposefully ordered as two separate tables, rather than one long table, to assist with the flexible environment.

“The large selection of options for the Kant table made it an easy choice. We designed a big flexible meeting room, with sliding walls and textile room dividers. The table needed to be able to transform from two smaller tables to one long one, and still look seamless and well fitted. The construction and finish of Kant made it the perfect choice, and it makes us happy every time we see how well it works in this setting.”

Surrounding the Kant tables are stackable Sky 4 leg chairs. Upholstered in a variety of colours – peach, mauve, light blue and mint green – to complement the interior aesthetic.

Complementary Pairs

Continuing into the medium sized meeting rooms, the Arena chair 4 star base, and Kant table have been paired together for a 6 person size meeting space. The straight forward, minimal design of the Kant balances with the organic flowing curves of the Arena chairs seat.

Once again, a clever use of colour is used to define the two products and create a calm but inspiring atmosphere. The Kant table was selected with a Smokey Blue linoleum tabletop and white base to contrast, while the Arena was also selected with a smoky blue Kvadrat Re-wool fabric to complement the scheme.

Sitting off the central conference room vibrant blue Kvadrat Forest Nap fabric Crossover Young Iconic chairs are used for one of the hot desking spaces. The Crossover is a meeting point between a conference and task chair – offering the comfort for all day seating and the expression of a meeting chair.

The same Crossover chairs but in a pale pink Kvadrat Remix fabric can be seen for the huddle spots in one of the side meeting rooms.

Seeing the same chair in these two areas highlight their capability to be used within the space simultaneously for different types of tasks.

Dining in good company

Moving into the canteen area, the Nam Nam Wood chair has been used to complement the banquet seating that surrounds the kitchen. White lacquered wood with green Kvadrat Atlas fabric was chosen for the Nam Nam chairs, matching the combination of colours within the canteen area.

Perfect for adding more seats to a table without sacrificing comfort, the small footprint Nam Nam chair, was originally designed for a pan-Asian street food restaurant in Copenhagen.

A conversation with colour

“This office is the headquarters and administrative centre for the organisation and plays a large part in the organisation’s employer branding. The many colours of the project have come from Kunskapsförbundets brand and graphic profile.

They described themselves to me as a colourful brand, symbolising the diversity of their students and dedication for personal growth and knowledge through creativity.

Our mission was to interpret the spirit of The Dream Factory and use their many profile colours to create an inspiring space to work. The variation in colours was a welcome challenge for us!

The office is more colourful than your average administrative centre. But I believe the overall result is balanced and cohesive throughout the whole interior.

Now the project is finished we’ve received a lot of feedback from people working at or visiting the space. They are amazed at  how the different colours and shades work so well together and how it makes them feel. They could never imagine a bright blue chair and a strong pink wall lamp having that effect!

The many finish and material options for each product at Icons of Denmark ensured I could create a dynamic yet cohesive concept throughout the entire project. It also made it easy for us to customize and create a unique look for each project. We spent quite some time curating the colour scheme to make the overall feeling comfortably colourful, harmonic, inspirational and dynamic.

By combining the different hues of the scheme, the spaces bring out different emotions – a feeling of being energetic by using accents and bold combinations, and then calm, peaceful atmospheres using the same colours but in muted tones.”

– Julia Lorenz of Plats!