Orkla

Located in Oslo, Orkla’s new 16-storey headquarters is home to more than 900 employees, and is the main base of operations for the biggest branded consumer goods company in the entire Nordic region, a state-of-the-art structure designed by NSW Architects and Interior Architects IARK.

A three year project, Interior Architects IARK were fully involved in the development of the holistic workplace and design concepts, including an activity based working (ABW) layout and an array of sustainable and wellbeing centric features.

With 2.1 chairs available in the workspace per employee, Flokk designs feature throughout, with Orkla’s physiotherapist deeply involved in the selection process to ensure employees had healthy and reliable furniture.

Individual work zones feature the HÅG SoFi mesh as the standard work chair, with the HÅG Capisco specified in smaller numbers as an alternative design for employees. The intuitive and flexible nature of the chairs meant they were the natural choice.

In collaboration zones, the HÅG Futu was the standard chair of choice, with the colour of the undercarriage and design giving it warmth as well as function. Profim Noor, with its depth of styles and colours, was an exciting choice in brand meeting rooms. Although each meeting room has a distinct feel, the Profim Noor is adaptable to them all.

Offecct furniture was perfectly suited to a range of the common spaces. Offecct On Point tables, Offecct Meet Sofa systems, and Offecct Move On Stools can be found in the cafeteria, casual meeting areas and reception space.

Orkla were keen to reuse a variety of furniture from their previous office in keeping with their sustainability aims. A range of Flokk furniture, including HÅG H05, HÅG H09 and HÅG Capisco chairs were brought over from the previous office.

With a core mechanic built to last well past warranty, and a lack of glue making the chairs easy to disassemble, minor refurbishments and reupholstering was a simple task. Roughly 40% of the Flokk chairs in previous use were recycled to fit the new workspace.

The building has several innovative energy measures, including a rooftop solar park providing power to the building, which runs completely on smart energy systems. Additional solar panels are built into balcony railings. These innovative and environmentally friendly features helped it to achieve the Excellent BREEAM certification.