13 years after our founding, we are proud to introduce our redesigned HQ in the center of Copenhagen. Spanning across a combined 1400m2, the address of the redesigned HQ has been that of Muuto since 2013 when we moved into a single floor in the building. As a natural progression of our continued growth, the new Muuto HQ is now comprised of three floors along with a rooftop terrace, overlooking the Copenhagen skyline.
Speaking on the redesign, Muuto CEO Anders Cleemann says: “We wanted to create something that would serve as a functional workplace to the utmost degree for our employees while communicating the values and ideas of the Muuto universe throughout every single square meter, allowing us to welcome retailers, architects, dealers and press into our world,” and adds: “We wanted to explore the blurring of lines between workplace and showroom with the hospitality atmosphere, emphasizing how our designs across furniture, lighting and accessories are suitable for any workplace context, whether it be canteen areas, stationary desk spaces, conference rooms or flexible work zones.”
On the approach to creating a space that could at once serve as a workplace and flagship of its brand ethos, Marketing Director Line Brockmann Juhl says: “It was integral to us that we embraced the various ways of working that we exercise throughout the workday, providing ourselves with facilities that allow for a multitude of work modes: collaborative sessions, formal meetings and solo work sessions, while embracing the social, informal encounters that happen throughout the day,” and adds: “Combined with these multifunctional requirements were a desire to create a new perspective on the modern workplace, brought together under the values and philosophy of Muuto.”
Throughout the process, we have collaborated with architecture and spatial design agency BRiQ on integrating our ideas of the modern workplace into the redesign. Noting on their approach to the project, BRIQ architect Iben Bach says: “One thing that we paid a lot of emphasis to was the workflows of each team within Muuto; the people working in their design department need the agility to move around easily and test new products while the people in marketing have a lot of collaborative sessions and supply chain spend a lot of time by their desks. Investigating the various flows of each team allowed for the interior design to be informed by the workings and mechanics of each department within Muuto. By creating different zones for the various departments, we’ve striven to foster a sense of belonging within each team.”
Through our collection of furniture, lighting and accessories, the redesign allowed for us to explore the versatility within our collection. Speaking on that, our Design Director Christian Grosen says: “The redesigned HQ has a variety of spatial typologies: desk settings, quiet rooms, showroom areas, conference rooms and informal meeting spaces. We wanted to show how there’s a Muuto design for any of these needs, be it armchairs with a deep comfort and high functionality for longer meetings, informal sofas for impromptu encounters, friendly chairs for a canteen space or work-specific designs to provide added function and comfort throughout the workday,” and adds: “Just as with our designs, we’ve striven for the HQ to be relevant for many years to come in its aesthetic, quality and function.”
As a natural extension of our continued emphasis on wellbeing in design and its A Space for Being collaboration with Google, Reddymade Architecture and Johns Hopkins University for Milan Design Week 2019, the spatial design approach to the redesign has explored the relations between design, space and the workday of our team members, creating atmospheres that facilitate the function of a given workspace.
The activity-based zones are created through Muuto’s designs that serve a functional and aesthetic purpose, in line with the given work type, as well as through the use of color, materials, shapes, tactility and more. This approach to activity-based zones is founded in the belief that our senses activate our intelligence, prompting the creation of spaces that have a purpose that is not only functional but also aesthetic and biological.
An example of this could be a collaborative meeting area. Here, the designs used are playfully modern in their appearance in vibrant colors and used this sentiment throughout the elements of the area, whether it be colors, materials, lighting or architectural structures.
On the contrary, a formal meeting room has been created with designs that are more timeless and elegant, a sentiment that is repeated throughout the elements of the room for an understated and refined atmosphere.
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