Ingka

IKEA Ingka Meeting Places: Redefining community spaces

‘Togetherness’ defines Ingka, the parent company of IKEA and Ingka Centres. Together, they embody IKEA’s retail mission to ‘create a better everyday life for the many people’ and Ingka Centre’s vision for Meeting Places: innovative, mixed-use destinations where people live, work, shop, eat, and connect.

With IKEA stores as anchors, Meeting Places sit within new or existing shopping centres offering visitors new experiences and enjoyment, while businesses benefit from increased footfall and brand visibility. Each Meeting Place seeks to create a vibrant, locally tailored community destination.

Creating a destination. For visitors and retailers

SRA worked together with IKEA and Ingka at Livat Hammersmith, the UK’s first Ingka Centre, to expand IKEA’s mall presence and enhance the sense of place. By also working with other retailers to improve their units, we’ve helped to position Livat Hammersmith as a distinctive destination for shopping, socialising, dining, and inspiration.

As IKEA continues its strategy to bring its iconic home furnishing range closer to where many people live, work, and shop, it recently opened its Brighton store inside the iconic Churchill Square Shopping Centre.

As well as re-purposing an existing retail unit for IKEA, we continue to work with Ingka to create a Meeting Place within the Centre. Drawing on inspiration from the local area, we’ve incorporated themes of sustainability, inclusivity, playfulness, bravery, groundedness, compassion, and friendliness into the design of the strategically positioned resting spaces within the mall.

Simply designing spaces … for people

Dynamic entrances welcome visitors to each Meeting Place. Ingka’s focus on anthropological design, scale, and proportion extends naturally to urban mall signage, making it accessible for foot traffic. Digital wayfinding, consistent signage, and clear information points support a sense of well-being and connection, guiding visitors through their shopping experience and inviting them to rest and spend time together along the way.

Re-envisioning retail spaces together

We feel privileged to continue our long-standing ‘togetherness’; to work with Ingka to help make their vision a reality. Because we also fundamentally believe that places and spaces should improve people’s lives and make them more joyful.

 Contact us to find out how we can help your brand realise its vision for a retail experience.