Handball, hockey and Bob Dylan

– Exploring the future arena experience of the Ericsson Globe

Openlab is leading a research and development process to explore the future of the Ericsson Globe, focusing on the user experience.

A construction of mainly concrete, steel, aluminum, sheet metal and glass. An outside diameter of 110.40 meters and a total height of 130 meters above sea level. The Ericsson Globe is the world’s largest spherical building. Fascinating, and challenging. To reach the full potential of this unique building, as well as visitors’ aspirations and the opportunities that comes with new technology, Stockholm Globe Arena Real Estate Company (SGAF) has turned to Openlab to lead a design process that engages stakeholders, users and developers along the way. All in order to continue investing in solutions that create the future arena experience in Stockholm’s most fascinating building, the Ericsson Globe.

Openlabs starting point in an innovation processes is to understand the user’s needs and wants. This time, for Innovation leaders Sara Araya and Maria Rogg, it has meant everything from handball matches, SHL matches and NHL matches, to a Bob Dylan concert on site at Globen.

Sara Araya tells us that one of the most fun experiences so far was visiting Globen at daytime. To experience the incredible space and height in the arena, both upwards and downwards. Most surprising was that Globen has entire streets indoors that are named after both star constellations and places and gods from the Asa mythology.

The challenge of acoustics in the Ericsson Globe are not new problems at all, but there is enormous potential today with new technology and the creativity of the suppliers to solve the problem. To identify the different possibilities, Openlab facilitated an inspirational workshop on November 7th when we, together with all the stake holders, developed proposals for the visitor experience in the Ericsson Globe in the future, this time with a focus on hockey.

The stake holders in the project are SGAF, Djurgården Hockey, C.F. Møller Sverige AB and Stockholm Live AB.

Next step for our Innovation managers is to compile all this knowledge of functional requirements for new development projects where solutions can be developed and tested in reality.

To know more about Globen 2.0, as well as other projects at Openlab