Client projects: AstraZeneca Stockholm

Modern, attractive and sustainable in the long term

When the number of employees increased within a fairly short period of time, AstraZeneca’s Nordic marketing company in Stockholm was faced with a need to find new premises. But not to a place far away, in fact just over the road to the Forskaren building. In August 2024 they moved into the building, which has a vision to be a place where world-leading operators in the fields of academia, healthcare and business can meet and share knowledge. AstraZeneca’s vision for the new office was to create an attractive workplace where the focus is on innovation and partnership. A place that contributes to developing the business and helps them remain an attractive partner in the field of life science.

From vision to reality

The vision of an attractive workplace with a focus on innovation and partnership is now very much a reality. The new office is highly appreciated not only by the 200 or so employees, but also by customers and business partners who are delighted to pay a visit.

Following the move, most employees are choosing to spend more of their working hours in the office than before. This success is the result of a clear vision, thorough preparatory work and close collaboration between AstraZeneca and Kinnarps.

Sustainable choices show the way

One important watchword for the new spaces was sustainability, which meant that the interior design from the previous office had to be reused. With support from Kinnarps, this was itemised and planned into the new interior design solution in an efficient way, so that essentially everything was reused.

Andreas Holmgren, Director of IT & Site Management at AstraZeneca, explains that the organisation has ambitious sustainability goals that place demands on their suppliers to also work with sustainability in the long term. He explains that this was one of the reasons why they chose to collaborate with Kinnarps, both in the Forskaren project and in several previous projects. “We were looking for a supplier that we’d be able to work with for a long time to come, which meant that our long-term sustainability goals needed to be aligned. And that was the case with Kinnarps,” he says.

Space for all the activities of the working day

An employee survey was conducted to provide base data for the interior design solution, and this was processed jointly by AstraZeneca and Kinnarps. The insights from the survey made it possible to design an office adapted to the way the organisation works. An interior design solution that supports everything from work with an individual focus to creative collaborations.

The physical meeting is important to promote innovation and collaboration. A wide range of meeting spaces was therefore needed to support everything from creative and informal meetings to bigger conferences and presentations.

The employee survey revealed that many people also wanted to work in spaces other than the traditional workstation. For example, many wanted to be able to sit and work on a sofa or in an armchair, in a more informal, relaxed setting.

One of the clearest insights that emerged from the preparatory work was the need for spaces that support work with an individual focus. This is why the large number of open desks were supplemented with 19 bookable workstations in separate rooms – an option that is often praised by employees. Knowing that there are always rooms available, for example when you need to hold a video meeting, has created a new level of security.

Collaboration with precision

As unforeseen circumstances can easily delay large projects like this, Andreas says that many employees were pleasantly surprised when everything was ready for moving in on the exact date that had been set. “Everything was ready when it was supposed to be, so immediately after the holiday period, 80 employees could start working in the new office without any problems.” He looks back on a successful project and confirms that it paid off to adopt a meticulous approach all the way from vision to execution.