Tengbom by Slussen

We say (perhaps a little dramatically) that the Tengbom HQ office is never going to be finished. That doesn’t mean that pipes are dangerously dangling from the ceiling and that every other corner is stacked with unpacked boxes. Rather, it’s an attitude that our offices should never look stagnant; they should be cutting-edge and evolving.

“In this project, we got to try on the role of the client, which is perhaps the hardest thing to do as an architect. But it has been a very educational process. We’ve learned a lot of lessons that will hopefully make us better architects and partners,” says Johanna Munck af Rosenschöld, previous Practice Director in Stockholm.

Many felt that it was a disaster waiting to happen.

A journey of change at Tengbom

Tengbom is expanding and developing its services at a rapid clip. This made it very clear to us one day that we had outgrown our premises and had many new needs to be addressed. This was the start of a journey of change we all were to embark on: a process of a clear direction but less-clear goals, led by change leader and Tengbom architect Torbjorn Höeg.

“Many felt that it was a disaster waiting to happen, but I never saw it that way. Rather, I see my role as being the one who helps ask the questions, rather than providing the answers,” he says.

The whole office was involved in workshops to find and identify our needs and new ways of working. A number of complex studies, including area and efficiency studies, allowed us to free up space for meetings and creativity by doing away with loads of storage.

A workshop

Regardless of our address, we see the office as a workshop—a creative hub for our core business. It’s a melting pot where ideas are born, and spontaneous encounters spark innovation.

“The goal has been a creative workshop where nothing is stopping us from working, getting materials out and making a mess. We want our colleagues to display the projects they are working on, to debate and learn from each other. We have focused a lot on making the interior facilitate this. Therefor we have had to let go of the guide rails and look at reality,” says Mark Humphreys, Practice Director.

“We don’t want it to be finished! We don’t call it activity based, but ‘innovation based’. That’s the next step,“ says Johanna Munck af Rosenschöld.

One important space for this kind of meetings and workshops is the area in the heart of the office. We call it the Arena. Here, we created a place that is equally well suited for lots of small, spontaneous meetings and large lectures and exhibitions. A place for knowledge sharing, basically.

Collaboration and co-creation

One of the major goals of the office is that it should promote and support collaboration across competence boundaries. Therefor we have plenty of open space and fewer dedicated areas. We think that seeing what someone is doing is a stepping-stone toward contact and engagement. We also have rooms with specific functions to facilitate co-creation with our clients and partners. And there are rooms that are especially suited for idea generation, video conferencing, and quiet, focused work.

What you see is what you get within Tengbom by Slussen

We take a transparent approach to our Tengbom HQ office. We don’t decorate or pose things just for the sake of it. And we aren’t trying to be something we are not. Our employees stand for creativity here. That’s why we like to say that the office should be like a blank canvas. It’s up to each and every one of us to fill it.

Satisfied, but never finished

Shortly after moving in to our new offices, we found that the trip went surprisingly well. The the change that followed has had positive effects. For example, we have been able to do away with even more storage to free up the teams’ energy. Having said that, we are not finished or complacent. We continue to push the boundaries of what an office can be, with ourselves in the centre as test subjects in a living lab.

“It takes courage to have fewer desks than employees, like we do. Especially in a time when the office is growing fast. All the decisions we made are backed up by the surveys we did on internal needs. And we now have a number of alternative workplaces instead. We feel confident in our decisions at the same time, as we are not afraid of new solutions or changes in the future. The most important thing is a vibrant and enthusiastic work place,” states Johanna Munck af Rosenschöld.

At the end om March 2023, we set off for new adventures as we packed up Tengbom by Slussen and moved to Hälsingegatan 49 in Hagastaden.

Photographer: Joakim Johansson